The Lie of a Truth
by Animationguy113
Summary: Nick, Judy and their friends are forced to work for a crime boss of Zootopia, or else everyone they love will be in danger. As more mammals continue to die in the city, the fear of the criminal organization only jeopardizes the city's safety significantly. Nick and Judy worry now if they have what it takes to stop him, no matter what choices they will have to make along the way...
1. prologue

**Prologue**

 _My name is Nicholas Piberius Wilde. I know what you're thinking, finding a letter from me out in a place like this with me not being here in the flesh. Crazy right? Still though, it wouldn't kill me to at least leave something behind. I was at least able to convince the guards of pitying me enough to let me write this. The truth is though, I really don't even know how it ever got to well…. "This."_

 _I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I thought I had a plan to turn this frown upside down, but I was always five steps behind that damn thought. I never "really" knew what I was up against until I figured it out at the wrong time. I assumed I could handle this situation, so I didn't exactly end up being the most truthful with the mammals around me. I hated myself for it, but I still stayed strong and knew that it was the right thing to do._

 _But over the past two years, I've just been sick of all these murders, thieveries and losing people close to me that I don't even care whether I live or die anymore. Just as long as no more mammals have to suffer because of me and my partners actions. I just wish there was a big undo button that I would give my life for to make sure none of this ever happened. I have just seen too many things in these years that no mammal would ever dare to see in five life times._

 _I mean hell, I saw my own friends get shot right in front of me. Me and my other friends were literally forced to get down on our knees with guns on us, knowing that our life we have lived so long and hard for, would simply end with just the pull of a trigger. You see, it's things like that, that make you want to do something about it but when really, what can you do. I learned it the hard way when I asked the ZPD for help, and the same went for the people close to me._

 _Judy…. I need help. Heh, I never thought the day would come when I would ask a rabbit for help. But I have come to learn that even the toughest mammal in the world needs a helping paw sometimes to. But Judy, if you ever read this, just know that one day…. This will all end._

"Hmm." said officer Mchorn as he finished reading Nicks letter.

"Yo Mchorn, did you find anything useful in Nick's letter?" asked officer Grizzoli.

"Sigh, nothing that I can currently understand with this," explained Mchorn, "have there been any more whereabouts about officers Hopps, Wilde, and Clawhauser?"

"Afraid not, we've asked almost every mammal in all of Zootopia but still no sign of them." said Grizzoli, "Do you have any idea where they might have gone from reading that letter?"

Before Mchorn could answer, Officer Higgins radioed in and called out _"EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY! ALL AVAILABLE UNITS HEAD TO THE TALLEST OF THE CITY CENTRAL BUILDINGS AND STAY CAUTIOUS. SOMETHING BIG IS ABOUT TO GO DOWN!"_

 **Ladies and gentlemen, all new and old readers of this story, welcome to my first story, "The lie of a truth."**

 **I do not own any of these characters, it's all Disney's besides the ones I make up just to clear that up. And F.Y.I. (for your info) I will not be doing these little message things at the bottom of the end of a chapter unless it was an extreme emergency about something since I am more of a person that just likes to hear what people think rather than what I think. Thank you.**


	2. No Worries

**Chapter 1: No Worries**

May 23, 2016

It was simply an everyday life for Nick. He gets up around 7:00 am. " _BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP"_ went the alarm, "uuuuuuuhhhhhh, mom make the car stop yelling at me." mumbled Nick as he was trying to get a few more minutes of sleep.

Has some breakfast. "Hmm, frosted flakes or lucky chomps…. Eh, I'll do both."

Gets on the train to head to the ZPD while playing brick breaker on his phone. "Come on, break you stupid brick…" Nick mumbled as he was waiting on the train.

Meets up with Judy at the entrance of the ZPD. "There you are Nick!" Judy said, "Where were you? You were supposed to be here by 7:30! Bogo's going to have our tails for this." Judy yelled. Nick smirked, "Relax Carrots, its only 7:33. I'm sure buffalo-butt won't mind just a few-"

"HOPPPS, WILDE!" Chief Bogo yelled.

"You just had to jinx it didn't you," Judy growled.

"Ah heh heh, yea." Nick nervously laughed.

"OOOH the chief sounds mad! You better try and reason with him before you become dead meat!" Clawhauser said.

"Gee, thanks Clawhauser," Nick said sarcastically.

Would sometimes get yelled at by Bogo for their tardiness, and then given their assignments for the day. "Hopps, Wilde," Bogo said," you will be going on patrol in the Sahara square district. There have been some reports of suspicious looking mammals, predator and prey that have been going into mysterious areas and have been apparently moving oddly out in the open. I want you to find out what all the fuss is about, and report back as soon as possible."

Nick shrugged, "sounds simple enough."

Judy glared at Nick and whispered, "Remember what I said about jinxing?"

Has some lunch at some of his favorite places like "Furrific Bagels" or "tom the hippo's sushi parlor."

Finish his duty for the day and then either hangs out with Judy or his other pals, and/or watches some of his favorite shows like Friends, or Breaking Paw (Breaking Bad) with some dinner like a beetle's sandwich.

Nick did come to learn that this was pretty much his basic routine that he has done, and will probably be doing for his life, but he liked it either way. But then again, life doesn't always go the way it was planned to.

May 30, 2016

"Mondays are just simply the worst," mumbled nick with his head down on the desk.

"Yea, I know. But since it only comes once a week my advice, suck it up." Judy said.

"But it's not even that carrots, it's that I've always had the worst luck on Mondays. Like back in my youth when I went to places that well, I shouldn't have been around but believe me I did that all the time back then anyways, I was mugged three times and they all happened on a Monday. I just simply find it to be an unlucky day for me." Nick explained.

"Hehe, whatever you say slick." giggled Judy.

"Alright, alright, quiet down please," Bogo said, "before we start, Officer Anderson seems to have lost his badge so if anyone has seen it, please get it back to him. Now then assignments."

Judy and Nick patiently waited for their assignment until they were the last ones left in the room. "And finally officers Hopps and Wilde." Bogo said. "You two will be going back to Sahara Square to go on another patrol due to suspicions of mammals acting odd towards the public, and carrying strange bags of items with them."

"Wait what?" Nick said, "Chief with all due respect, we've already patrolled that place last week and never really found any suspicious behavior or people carrying around suspicious bags."

"I'm aware of that," Bogo said, "But even after your patrol, we've still been getting reports about the same suspicion around that district.

"What are you implying?" Judy asked.

"I'm implying that you two go undercover this time." Bogo said, "It is possible one of these suspicious mammals saw your cruiser and informed the others to back off the streets until you two left. So this time if you play it right, if you go undercover this possible group won't see you coming."

"And if we still don't find anything?" Nick asked.

"Then we'll back off and simply say to the public that it's nothing to worry about." Bogo answered, "Now then, get some casual clothes on and get into the car at lot twenty three for your undercover vehicle. But before you head out, Clawhauser will give you traffic cam pictures that have taken pictures of some of the suspicious looking mammals to see if you can get a lead on where they go. Dismissed."

Bogo, went back to his office, while Nick and Judy went to the change rooms to change into some casual clothes. Judy decided to wear a purple and teal striped shirt with jeans, while nick decided to wear his typical clothing with a Hawaiian light green t-shirt, his dark indigo tie with red and blue stripes, and a pair of brownish-gray pants. They then walked out and met each other at the entrance.

"You ready?" Nick asked.

"Yep," Judy answered.

As they were walking to Clawhauser, Nick couldn't help but see Judy with a nervous look on her face.

"You alright there carrots?" Nick asked.

"Yea, just a little nervous is all." Judy replied, "I mean if this suspicion is real, this could be a bigger problem than we think it is."

Nick did understand why Judy was feeling a little nervous, but he still assumed the mammals at Sahara Square are probably just too anxious about things.

"Well carrots if you ask me, I think it's just a bunch of mammals having a fuss over something that probably has a logical explanation to it." Nick explained.

"Yea you're probably right, thanks nick." Judy said.

"Hey, no worries carrots." Nick said.

The two then headed to Clawhauser to pick up the pictures.

"Hey you two!" Clawhauser said, "You're probably looking for those pictures right?"

"Yuperoo," Judy said.

"4...5…6 here!" clawhauser said.

As Judy and Nick studied the pictures, Nick started to notice a little pattern.

"Hmm, Clawhauser, is there a reason there's only pictures taken on the streets Warner and Scorch?" Nick asked.

"No, they were just the only places that caught some of those suspicious looking mammals that were carrying those bags around."

"Well, it's a good lead to start with for those streets." Judy said.

"But it's not just that though," Nick said, "Doesn't it seem kind of odd that all these bags that they're carrying around are different sizes?"

"That could just mean that there really is normal stuff in that bag." Judy said, "I mean, for all we know there could just be groceries in those bags."

"Yea Nick," Clawhauser said, "In my days at the ZPD, most of the cases that had to do with people carrying mysterious bags around were all the same size. Those that weren't ended up being a simple misunderstanding."

"Or it means that they're carrying more than just the same thing to wherever they're going." Nick countered.

"Nick, you're over reacting," Judy said, "We don't even know if this is something to be worried about. Let's just head over there first and see if there really is anything to be worried about."

" _Sigh_ , you're probably right Carrots," nick said, "Thanks for the pictures Ben."

"Anytime Nick!" Clawhauser replied.

The two then headed to the car and made their way to the Sahara Square district not knowing whether this was just a misunderstanding, or a situation they couldn't even imagine.


	3. Internal Affairs

**I bet some of you have been wondering if I stopped with this story. but don't worry, I'm far from stopping with this.**

 **Still though, This is just a side note saying that I will only be posting one chapter a week because one, I don't want to be overflowing you guys with these chapters and two, I don't want to be rushing myself either when I'm doing this story, especially since exams are coming around. Thanks!**

 **Chapter 2: Internal Affairs**

"Now Warner and scorch are just up here," Judy said, "But how are we going to stay here unsuspiciously?"

"Well, that's why I was thinking of going to higher ground in that parking lot building," Nick said as he pointed across the street."

"Sure, that could work." Judy said.

Judy and Nick then made their way up to the parking lot building and positioned at the top to see the whole view of the street. "So… now what?" Judy asked.

"We wait I guess." Nick replied, "you brought the binoculars right?"

"Yep, they're in the trunk," Judy said.

"Good" Nick said, "Now we just got to wait for these "suspected" looking mammals but if we don't find anything, then this will turn out to be a really lousy day for us."

* * *

This wasn't exactly what you would call a "fun" assignment to do for Nick and Judy. Hours passed and still no sign of any suspicious looking mammals on either streets. Nick and Judy eventually started to take turns with keeping an eye out while the other stayed in the car for some cool air or just did some stuff on their phone. While Nick was on his break, he couldn't help but see the mopy face Judy had while looking at the two streets in the extremely hot weather.

"I feel your pain Carrots," Nick smirked laying his arms on the bars, "I know this isn't quite the most exciting job with no punches or explosions here and there but hey, look on the bright side."

"Is there even one?" Judy asked.

"It beats parking duty." Nick laughed.

"That's arguable" Judy said.

"Oh yea, how so?" Nick questioned.

"The fact that you're actually doing something and not sitting on top of a building for hours in the scorching heat." Judy answered, "But it is better than having people yell at you all day I'll give you that." Judy giggled.

"Yea, that's never a very fun feeling for anyone." Nick said

"You know Judy, "Nick said. Judy turned to look at him, but was surprised since he only called her by her first name when talking about something serious, "I'm sure you know my story of wanting to be a cop by now, but what about yours?" Nick asked.

It took a moment, but then Judy finally spoke.

"Well really, I suppose it was one of those deals with a kid wanting to make the world a better place kind of thing." Judy explained, "I mean back then, I never really understood yet that the ZPD was mostly made up of large and tuff animals. So I guess you can say I was a little stubborn back then."

Nick laughed, "I'll bet."

Judy friendly elbowed him on the arm. "But even so, I still never gave up on my dream since I was really that desperate to prove the world wrong that a rabbit really can be more than just a silly carrot farmer." Nick felt a little guilty when he recalled what he said to Judy the day they first met about how he implied that rabbits can only be good with carrot farming.

After a moment, Judy finally spoke up. "But no one ever believed me. I was always bullied for what I thought I could be. You're crazy, a bunny being a cop? HAH! That's a good one. You'll nothing but a stupid carrot farming dumb bunny!" Judy quoted from how people treated to her in the past.

"Must have been hard on you huh?" Nick said.

"Overall yea, it sure was." Judy said, "Still though, I stayed strong through all of it. And frankly, all the hate I got just motivated me even more since I thought about how much I would love to see the looks on all of their faces when they realized that I actually did what they thought was impossible." Judy giggled.

"You sly bunny." Nick said.

Before Judy could say anything else, a wolf carrying the same bag from the pictures walking on Warner Street caught her eye. "Oh my god, Nick look at the wolf walking on Warner Street." Judy said as she handed Nick the binoculars.

As Nick looked at the same wolf and realized it was the same type of bag from the pictures, he was in disbelief. "You don't think that's…." Nick said as Judy nodded back.

"Well, we have to find out where they're going." Judy said, "Chances are they're taking whatever is in those bags to somewhere on this street."

Nick and Judy watched the wolf until he finally stopped.

"Look, he's going into a store!" Judy yelped, "What store is he going into Nick?"

Nick was surprised when he saw where the wolf was going into. "Jerry's cheesecakes?" Nick said.

"Wait what? Let me see," Judy said while getting the binoculars from Nick. "But that doesn't make any sense, why would a bunch of strange acting mammals bring their bags into a place like a cheesecake store?"

"Maybe that's just how they bring in ingredients for the cheesecakes." Nick said

"No I don't think so," Judy said, "I'm gonna go down there and take a look."

"W-wait up!" Nick said as Judy was heading back to the car.

* * *

Judy and Nick parked in front of the store and then headed in.

"There's the wolf!" Judy whispered to Nick.

"I'll approach him, but not in a way that looks suspicious." Nick whispered to Judy.

"Wait! Take this with you." Judy said.

"I'll have the mixed berries cheesecake but without the blackberries and blueberries please." The wolf said.

"Aw come on, blueberries are always the best with cheesecakes!" Nick said to the wolf.

Judy was sitting at one of the tables in the front, hoping Nick could see what was in that bag.

"Um, can I help you?" The wolf asked Nick.

"No, no," Nick said, "It's just that I love blueberries especially on cheesecake, so when I hear someone that doesn't want it on theirs I go whaaaaaaaaat?"

The wolf just gave Nick a tasteless look on his face.

"Speaking of which, you don't happen to have any blueberries in that bag do you?" Nick asked." I'd just kill for a pack or two right now, you feel me?"

"If I don't like blueberries why would I have any in my bag?" The wolf asked.

"Hey, ya never know what's in there." Nick said, "A friend of mine named Danny, he's a wolf as well has always hated donuts. But wouldn't you know it, I ask him one day what was in the bag and he pops out some donuts! True story and now he loves donuts."

"Your point being?" The wolf asked.

"I'm just saying the same deal can be with you." Nick said

"Well it's not." The wolf said

"Oh yea, then what's in the bag?" Nick asked.

"Just some tools and supplies for building." The wolf said

"Ooh, what are you building?" Nick asked

"Listen fox." The wolf said, "I don't know who you think you are asking me all this weird stuff, but if I were you I would just get my cheesecake and go."

"Fine," Nick said, "Just trying to be civil here jeez."

Nick then walked away with some blueberry cheesecake and headed back to where Judy was sitting.

"Did you catch everything?" Judy asked.

"yesh I did." Nick said giving Judy her carrot recording pen back while munching on some cheesecake.

"Yes!" Judy whispered excitedly.

"You're sure the pen was able to last long enough recording time right?" Nick asked.

"Oh please Nick." Judy said, "This pen can last for twenty minutes of recording! I'm sure you got it all."

"Well then I think we're all set don't you?" Nick asked.

"Yep!" Judy said, "We're almost done our shift so we can just take the car back to the ZPD, I'll give the pen to Bogo to see what he thinks of this situation and then I think we will be all done for the day don't you think?"

"Sounds about right." Nick said, "Let's go."

"By the way, I heard about that time with your friend Danny while you were talking to that wolf." Judy said, "Was that really true about him and the donuts?"

"Well, most of it." Nick said, "I only lied about the part where I said he liked it, but that was just to try and persuade the wolf more. He just happened to buy some donuts for a horse friend of his since it was his birthday."

"Oh…." Judy said.

But before Nick and Judy went, the wolf from before took a picture of the licence plate as they were driving away.

* * *

"Alright, here we are." Judy said as she and Nick parked in front of the ZPD.

As they were walking in, Clawhauser called out to them.

"Hey you two!" Clawhauser said, "So did you guys find anything on those two streets?"

"As a matter of fact, we did." Nick said.

"Oh, em goodness!" Clawhauser squealed, "Nick that's great! What did you guys find?"

As Nick was telling Clawhauser the whole story about him and the wolf, Judy finally spoke up.

"Well clawhauser we'd love to tell you more, but we want to try and give the recording pen to Bogo to see what he thinks of all this." Judy said.

"Oooh, about that…" Clawhauser said.

"What is it?" Nick asked.

"You see, Bogo had to leave early today since he got a call earlier from his mother saying that she wasn't feeling very well." Clawhauser explained. "But if you guys want, I could just leave the pen in evidence for the night and tell Bogo to take a look at it when he gets here in the morning."

"Sure that'd be great!" Judy said while handing him the pen. "Thanks Clawhauser!"

"Anytime Judy!" Clawhauser yelled back while waving goodbye to Judy.

* * *

Later that night….

"MAN THAT SOUNDS, CRAZY AS HELL!" Finnick yelled while having too many drinks at the bar.

"Well, I wouldn't call it the crazy you're thinking of, but it still was a pretty tense situation for me yea."

Even though Nick has been doing a different line of work for the past year now, it still never stopped him from hanging with some of his old pals especially Finnick. Finnick might not have the occasional partner at his side now that Nick was gone, but he still pulled through with a few part time jobs here and there to keep it balanced.

"Hey, how you two fine foxes doing this evening?" Danny, Nick's wolf friend he mentioned before said.

"Danny!" Nick said, "So you made it! What's up?"

"Eh, same old, same old," Danny said, "you?"

"Yea, same here." Nick said, "I was just telling Finnick about this encounter with this other wolf today at a cheesecake store. It's possible that he could be some sort of drug dealer, but we plan to investigate more into that later."

"Sounds tight man," Danny said. "How's my twin brother treating you these days? I hope he's behaving himself at the ZPD."

Nick laughed, "Yea he's doing just fine. Listen, it's great that you came here and everything Danny, but I was actually just about to head out. You know how it is with getting up and everything."

"Yea, yea I get you." Danny said, "I'll see you around then."

"Right back at ya." Nick said, "Oh, and keep an eye on Finnick as well. He may have had one too many drinks tonight."

"WHAT?" Finnick yelled, "WHAT'RE YA TALKING ABOUT, I'M COMPLETELY FI-,"

Finnick stopped as he fell out of his chair before passing out.

"Sigh, typical Finnick." Danny said.

An hour later in the alleyway as Danny was carrying Finnick out of the bar to take him back to his place, a lion tapped him from behind and Danny turned around.

"Uh, what do you want?" Danny asked.

"You." The lion said.

* * *

Nick then went back to his apartment after having a few drinks at the bar. As he was putting his keys down on the counter, he noticed that he got a new phone message from Judy. He played the recording.

"Hey Nick, its Judy. Can you give me a call whenever you can?" this is a bit weird for you to not be picking up since you have your phone on you like, all the time."

"Ah damn it," Nick whispered to himself, "of all days why did I leave my phone in the van when she called?"

But the message wasn't done.

"But something has just been feeling a little off ever since our assignment today. I just have this crazy instinct that someone is watching me right now. Nick I'm starting to get a little worried, please call back as soon as possible." The recording then ended.

Nick immediately dialed her number to see what was up, but it instead went to voicemail.

"Hi, this is Judy, I'm not here right now so please leave a message at the tone."

"Carrots, are you there?" Nick said nervously, "I uh, heard your message from before and I just want to talk to you about it so plea-"

Just then, something thin and sharp was just placed on Nick's throat as the figure behind him took the phone and hung it up.


	4. Coming To A Conclusion

**Chapter 3: Coming To A Conclusion**

Nick didn't even know what to think right now. All he knew was that someone was in his house with a knife on him. He thought it was the end for him, so he just closed his eyes with his life flashing before his eyes. But before that happened, the figure finally spoke.

"Now then, don't make a sound." The figure said, "I'm not here to kill you, but this is just a precaution."

Nick stayed silent, but was listening.

"I want you to go put your uniform on right now." The figure said.

Nick was confused."W-why would I-"

"Shut it." The figure said, "Now do as I told you, or things might get a little messy."

Nick hesitated for a moment, but eventually complied and put his uniform on with the knife still on him.

"Good." The figure said, "We're off to a good start, now stay in front of me and I'll direct you to where we're going."

"Please dude, you don't have to do this." Nick begged.

"Well I am doing this." The figure replied, "Now start walking to your door and turn right."

As Nick was being told where to go with the knife still on his back, they eventually made their way out of the apartment. Nick's best guess with the reason they made so many turns was to avoid being seen by the cameras. This guy knew what he was doing.

"Now get in the van." The figure said.

"Noooo." Moaned Nick still shivering as to what's happening to him.

"YES." The figure said deeply pointing the knife on him.

Nick had no choice but to do so. As the figure opened the van, Nick couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what was in front of him.

* * *

"Why are you doing this to us?!" Danny yelled as he and Finnick were taken into a basement after being knocked out cold by the lion earlier.

"Let's just say you and your friends have either heard and/or witnessed some things you shouldn't have seen." The lion said, "You see, after the little incident at the cheesecake store we found out who the licence plate belonged to, which ended up being a car from ZPD. And of course, who wouldn't know about the only fox and rabbit officers in the ZPD right? So after we saw Nick leave the ZPD and head to the bar you guys were at, unfortunately for you guys, he blabbed his mouth to you guys about it so here you two are."

"What?" Danny said, "But all he ever told us was about a weird looking wolf, that's it!"

"Were not taking any chances." The lion said, "Anyways I'm sure you have more questions, but we should probably wait until all of you have come."

"BEEP BEEP." Went the lion's phone.

"Oh speaking of which, ones almost here." Said the lion.

"What, who?" Danny asked.

* * *

"Judy?" Nick said seeing Judy in the van.

"Nick?" Judy said.

"I said get in the van." The figure said.

As Nick got in the van, the figure got in front of the driver's seat and started driving.

"Is everyone else in the basement?" The figure asked the polar bear beside him.

"Yea, yea they're there." The polar bear said, "Let's just head to the ZPD and get this over with."

"The ZPD?" Nick said, "Why are we going there?"

"To get that pen." The figure said.

"….w-wait a sec, how do you…." Nick said.

The figure then took off his hoodie and was revealed to be the wolf from the store.

"Because I was there." The wolf said. "Now then, you two and Biggy here will be going into the ZPD, retrieving that pen. If you guys do something even slightly out of the ordinary, he will silence you both."

Nick and Judy looked at them with a shocked expression.

"And personally, I hope you guys do what you're supposed to because there's been enough blood spilt tonight." The polar bear said.

"What, what are you talking about?" Nick asked.

"Bucky." Judy finally said.

"Who?" Nick asked.

"Bucky Oryx-Antlerson my neighbor." Judy said while crying.

* * *

1 HOUR EARLIER….

After Judy finished saying a voice message for Nick, she laid down on her bed and tried to get some sleep to try and stop feeling worried about her thoughts that someone was watching her.

But out of nowhere, a voice came to her coming right in front of the window.

"AHHHHH!" Judy screamed.

"Shut up or your dead!" whispered the polar bear pointing a gun with a silencer on it in front of her. "You don't have to worry about anyone seeing me. I'm wearing a camouflage blanket with the ladder I'm standing on so even if you do scream, people will just think you'll be yelling like a maniac. Now down to business. When the coast is clear of no mammals walking by, I want you to come down this ladder and get into my van."

"Who the heck are you?!" Judy yelled frightened.

Just then, someone knocked on her door.

"Judy are you in there?" The voice said, "It's Bucky. I'm just wondering what all the commotion's about."

"Open the door." The polar bear said pointing the gun at the door.

"…No…. no please." Judy pleaded.

"Do it, or I'll do it to you and then him." The polar bear said, "And grab him before he goes to the ground. We don't want to leave any blood here."

Crying, Judy went to the door and opened it.

Bucky spoke. "Hey Judy, what's u-"

Before Bucky could say anything else, the polar bear shot him right in the head. Judy then went to hold him up and quickly brought him to the polar bear.

"Good." The polar bear said. "Now bring your uniform with you and come down from this ladder, and get into the van to get changed."

* * *

Nick was shocked to hear what happened to Bucky, especially after realizing he was under them in the storage compartment.

"Were here." The wolf said, "Now you three get out and try and get this done clean please."

"But won't they find it suspicious that he isn't a cop?" Nick asked.

"That's why I have this." The polar bear said holding out a ZPD badge. "Don't worry, we've thought this through. But I will be completely silent the whole time with sunglasses and a hat on so if someone approaches or asks us about me, it's your job to come up with an explanation."

It took Nick a moment to realize it was officer Anderson's badge after remembering the chief say that he lost it this morning.

"Alright, let's go." The polar bear said.

The three mammals got out of the car and headed into the ZPD. There, they went into the evidence room while officer Ramone, a female lion was staying on watch.

"Oh hey Judy, Hey Nick." Ramone said. "And peter, is that you?"

The polar bear nodded showing the badge to her.

"Yea he just loves doing a lot of roleplaying lately." Nick said.

"Heh, I'll bet." Ramone said, "So what can I do you guys for?"

"We just need to grab Judy's carrot pen Judy gave to Clawhauser by accident." Nick said, "Turns out she gave him her carrot pen recorder and Clawhauser said he accidentally left it here when I called him about it earlier. So would you mind if we just grabbed it real quick?"

"No, not at all." Ramone said.

"Thanks Ramone, you're a life saver!" Nick replied.

Nick then went in and grabbed the carrot pen. Afterward, Nick thanked Ramone again and left the evidence room.

"Nice work you two." The polar bear said as they were leaving the ZPD. "I'm sorry to disappoint you guys though, but were not done yet. Now get back in the van."

Nick and Judy were not only frightened about what was happening currently, but that now they're still not done with this night. The two then went back to the van and got in it.

"Is it done Biggy?" The wolf asked.

"Yea don't worry its done." The polar bear said.

"Biggy?" Nick questioned.

"Yea, that's just his nickname." The wolf said. "Mine is Chip if you guys want to call me something."

"Where are we going?" Judy asked.

"You'll see." Chip said. "But before we go, give us your belts. You won't be needing them anymore, and we don't want to escalate any further to how we are now.

Nick and Judy didn't want to, frankly they didn't want to listen to these guys from the start. But they knew they didn't have a choice in the matter and gave them the belts.

"Alright, let's get a move on." Chip said as he started driving.

"What are we going to do now Judy?" Nick whispered.

"Why are you asking me?" Judy whispered back.

"Oh and by the way, you guys will be having some company with you as well." Chip said.

"Company?" Nick asked.

"Pretty much anyone that you talked to about the little situation this morning."

"Who did we tell?" Judy whispered.

"Oh no." Nick said.

"No…" Judy whispered, "Nick who did you tell?"

"I-I might have just mentioned it to Finnick and Danny at the bar." Nick whispered back. Judy just looked at him in disbelief. "Well how was I supposed to know that we'd end up in a situation like this?"

"Is that all?" Judy whispered.

"I'm pretty sure." Nick whispered back.

After a bit more of a long drive, they reached their destination. Nick and Judy were surprised to see that they were back at the cheesecake store.

"Alright, get out and come inside." Biggy said. "Everyone's waiting.

"Doesn't look like anyone's in there." Nick said.

"That's because they're all in the basement." Chip said. "Now get out and let's go."

After they all got out of the van, Nick and Judy tried to find an angle to try and escape, but every way they looked, they were blocked by Chip and Biggy. They then went into the store and saw a mouse behind the cashier's desk.

"Jerry, it's us." Chip said, "We're just taking the last two down the basement."

"Yea sure, go on." Jerry said.

The four went through and even though Nick and Judy couldn't see a basement, Chip then opened a vent and flipped a switch that was in it. Before Nick and Judy knew it, they saw stairs being formed right in front of them leading to a basement.

"What's down there?" Judy asked.

"You're about to find out." Chip said while taking his own gun out. "Now start moving."

Nick and Judy then went downstairs and saw something they've never seen in their life. Shelves and shelves of rifles, pistols, shotguns, light machine guns, submachine guns, and grenade launchers of all sorts. They then saw a group of all sorts of mammals huddled around a few other mammals.

"Hey guys, last two mammals are here!" Chip called out.

"Awesome!" One of the mammals cried out, "Bring em over here where the other three are."

As Nick and Judy were brought into the circle, they were shocked to see Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser there.

"Oh god, I forgot that we also told Clawhauser about it after we came back from the store." Nick whispered to Judy.

"Now stay down on your knees." Chip said. "I'm going to go get the boss from his office."

"Are you guys ok?" Nick whispered.

"Oh sure, we're doing just super." Finnick said sarcastically.

"They're right over here." Chip said.

The five then stared up and saw a zebra standing in front of them.

"Well isn't this something." The zebra said, "You can call me Z if you want. As you can tell, we're weapon manufacturers. And this is a legitimate business we have been working for a while now. Because of this, we don't want to stop now all because of some pesky mammals sniffing around where they shouldn't be. Where are the files?"

"Here sir." A doe said.

"Alright let's see what kind of mammals you are." Z said while looking at the information about the five mammals. Finnick Elgo Masto age 34. Only child, fathers gone but mom's still breathing, you seem to have a bit of a criminal record with thievery. care to explain?"

"Screw you." Finnick replied.

"Hmh, anyways…" Z said, "Benjamin Willard Clawhauser age 29. You Have a sister Ellie Janeen Clawhauser, and two loving parents. Heh, you're a Gazelle fan huh? How cute. You also have a job at the ZPD as a dispatcher and I don't even have to read it from here, but you're a pretty loving fan of junk food.

Clawhauser spoke up."What's the point of all this-"

"Shut up." Z interrupted. "Daniel Zannick Wolford age 27. Now you have a brother named Matthew Pora Wolford who also happens to be on the ZPD as well. You also have two loving parents, big fan of music and is ironically a vegetarian? Really bro?"

"Hey, you don't see me criticizing you." Danny said.

"To shay." Z said.

Nobody could even understand what the hell was going on right now. All they knew was that they were on the ground with guns on them since they assumed they saw something they shouldn't have. Judy was especially still shaken up after witnessing someone she knew get shot right in front of her. However, Nick was starting to understand the message he was giving to him and the others, but he didn't want to believe it.

Z then glared in Nick's direction. "Nicholas Piberius Wilde age 32." Z said taking a step forward to Nick. "Before I even look at the file, I just want to say that even you have had some history with us in the past. You've probably scammed at least three thousand bucks with the mammals in this room alone."

Nick still kept his eyes looking at the ground. "That was in the past." Nick said silently.

Z gave Nick a death glare. "Well sometimes the past can come back to bite you real hard in the butt." Z said deeply. "But hey, who can blame you? You've had some mommy and daddy issues since daddy didn't want to stick around and mommy had trouble with the bills so you stealed according to the file. And in my opinion, that's probably how you turned into Nick Wilde.

If Nick could, he would knock Z out cold right now, but he obviously knew how overpowered he was right now.

But Judy never actually knew much about Nick's past since he never really mentioned a lot about it. So even she was surprised about what Z was saying.

"And finally, Judith Laverne Hopps age 25." Z said. "But before I start, I never got to say an in-person thank you since two of my finest mammals were affected by that flower thing, what were they called again?"

"Night Howlers sir." An Armadillo said.

"Night Howlers, thank you Lizzie." Z said, "So yes, thank you."

Judy knew his words were genuine, but she still stared at him angered. "My, my, you do have quite a history." Z said, "275 siblings, another two loving parents that work on a farm, smallest mammal and first rabbit to graduate from the Zootopia Police Training Academy and to work at the ZPD, well known for the Night Howlers case and once again thank you, and even has a little carrot toy that can record people. Speaking of which, Chip can you hand that to me for a sec?"

Chip then gave the carrot pen to Z as he observed it. He then dropped in on the floor and then did a loud stomp on it.

Judy was then crushed since she knew how hard some of her brothers worked on that pen just for her to help with her work. "Now then, it's time to get down to business." Z said, "You five have slipped into a whole new territory that involves a lot of things that you would probably never see when it comes to the typical mammal in this city. And frankly, I could actually use some people like you."

The five looked at each other confused. "Use people like us?" Nick questioned.

"Exactly." Z said, "You see my little furry friend, I'm a gentleman. I don't just go killing mammals that I can easily mislead, I instead negotiate. That's why I would like you all to work for me.

"Work for you, why the hell would we work for someone like you?!" Judy yelled.

"I'm glad you asked that Miss Hopps, because I was just going to talk about that." Z said, "You actually didn't think we just make you mammals do something and be all holly and jolly about it afterwards, did you? Think about it, why do you think I just told you five your personal information? You really think I give a damn about that crap?"

It took a moment for the five to think about what he was trying to say until they realized the horrible truth. They all then looked at Z with horrified faces. "You don't mean…" Danny said.

"That's right." Z said silently, "So I would just like to come to a conclusion by saying, if you don't help us, the people close to you might just end up paying the consequences."


	5. Kindness Comes With A Price

**Chapter 4: Kindness Comes With A Price**

"You _monster_ …." Judy whispered.

"Miss Hopps…" Z said, "This is not something that I _want_ to do, but for any mammal really, it's to show that I'm serious about what I say. If you want proof, just remember what we did to that Bucko guy or whatever his name was-"

"BUCKY!" Judy yelled still furious about what they did to Bucky.

"Bucky, whatever." Z said, "Ok, I think we are all good here so Chip, Biggy escort them out of here so they may be let go. But just as a reminder, it doesn't matter what time of day it is or what you're in the middle of, when you see the number 11323 pop up on your phones, you are to pick up the phone and follow the orders no questions asked. And if you don't follow it, we will kill either you, or some of your family and friends as a message. If you tell anyone about this especially anyone else at the ZPD, and trust me, we will know, we will either kill you or some of your family and friends as a message. And if you do anything else that can destroy or majorly hurt this business, we will-"

"Either kill us, or some of our family and friends as a message right?" Finnick interrupted already getting the point from the start.

"Heh, fast learner." Z said, "Alright, take them out of here."

* * *

As Nick, Judy, Clawhauser, Finnick, and Danny were brought out of the store, Chip then put them to a halt before they left. Chip then made sure Nick and Judy got their belts back along with making sure the five all went to their homes their separate ways by having them all go a different way back to it.

Once Judy reached her apartment, she made sure the ladder still wasn't there before climbing back up without it to make sure no one would see her heading back to her room. She assumed it was the right thing to do if she didn't want mammals to be suspicious of her when they make a missing mammal report on Bucky. When she was back in her room, she still couldn't help but think about what happened to her, her friends and Bucky. She then took off her uniform and changed back into her pajamas before she received a call from Nick.

She then answered the phone to speak with Nick. " _Judy are you there_?" Nick asked, " _I just wanted to make sure you made it back to your place safely_."

"Yea…. I'm here." Judy hesitated.

" _Oh thank god_." Nick said, " _I called the others and they also made it back to their places safely as well. Listen Judy, I'm sorry about what happened to Bucky, I really am. But you can't act like how you probably are right now because with even just a toe out of line, we're in danger_."

"You think I don't know that Nick?" Judy said frustratingly, "What am I to you now, some sort of helpless bunny?"

" _Judy calm down, your overreacting_." Nick tried to explain.

"Overreacting?" Judy said, "We could have died down there Nick! I saw my own neighbor get shot right in front of me tonight and you think I'm overreacting?!"

Judy then started to feel tears coming out of her eyes. " _Not so loud Judy, we don't want anyone else getting involved in this_." Nick said. " _Look, I know how you're feeling right now, but we have to move on from this if we don't want anyone else to suffer_."

No matter how much she wanted to resist, Judy eventually gave in and started crying. "I'm scared Nick." Judy said, "And not even for myself, what if he does get to our other friends and family? I mean, how am I supposed to live with myself if Z actually does get to them?

" _They won't Judy, I promise_."

Judy felt a bit calmer after hearing that from Nick. "So what do we do from here?" Judy asked.

" _Well I thought we might need to think more about the situation we're in as a group, so I suggested to everyone that we meet up at Danny's tomorrow night. Is that alright with you?"_

Judy thought about it for a moment before replying. "It sounds reasonable, sure. When?"

" _Seven-ish_." Nick said, " _I'll send you the address later. For now, at least try and get some sleep_."

Judy exhaled deeply. "Okay, goodnight."

* * *

May 31, 2016

Nobody ever really got any sleep last night, especially Judy. She couldn't help but look at the door all night reminding herself about what happened to Bucky. But before she knew it, the alarm went off.

She then put her uniform on, but then thought to herself, _Do I really deserve to be wearing this badge to work?_ She knew in her mind that it wasn't right, but she also knew there was nothing else she could do.

She then headed to work and from there, she met up with Nick at the entrance. "I told Ben the same thing, just play it cool as if nothing ever happened ok carrots?" Nick whispered.

"Yes Nick, I know. "Judy whispered back, "What, you think I don't have common sense by now?"

"No, I'm just trying to make sure we're all on the same page here." Nick said.

"We should probably go talk to Bogo about what we did yesterday." Judy said.

Nick then glared at Judy. "Oh sure, let's just go to him and say 'hi chief, we just found out about a giant storage of weapons hiding under a cheesecake store. Oh, and did I also mention the part where Judy's neighbor was killed and that he threatened me and my friends about killing our friends and families if we told anyone about it?' Bravo, great idea." Nick whispered to Judy sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant Nick." Judy said, "what I'm saying is that we can tell him what we did, but we just can't let him know anything about the wolf encounter or pretty much anything else that has to do with Z and his group.

"So basically, we're telling the truth, but putting a lie in it?" Nick asked.

"It's the right thing to do for now Nick, even you would agree." Judy said, "I don't like it at all because by doing this, you and I have already broken the law since we've broken the oath that we made from the very start. And by the end of today, you, me, and even Clawhauser will have broken the law for not even saying anything. But right now, there is no better option."

"I know, I know." Nick said. "So if we're gonna do this, let's just get it over with."

Nick and Judy did want to talk to Clawhauser, but just by looking at him, they knew he wasn't even in the mood to talk about Gazelle, so they decided to leave him be until later.

They then went upstairs to Bogo's office and knocked on his door. "Who is it?" Bogo said.

"It's Nick and Judy, we just want to talk to you about yesterday's assignment since we didn't get the chance to the other day." Judy said.

"Ah yes, come in," Bogo replied.

They opened the door and then climbed up to two of the big chairs and took a seat as Bogo spoke. "So, did you two find anything?"

Nick hesitated as he was trying to figure out what to say to Bogo. "Uh, we uh…."

"We didn't find much really." Judy kicked in.

Bogo looked confused. "Didn't find much? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well I mean, other than the fact we saw two mammals kissing in an alleyway, we didn't really see anything else out of the ordinary." Nick finally said.

"But we actually did go to someone who seemed to match the description with the weird looking bags, but it turns out he just had groceries in the bag." Judy said.

"Ah, I see." Bogo said. "Well then just fill in the report and if we still keep getting reports about it, we'll know it's just a bunch of mammals getting their noses into things they shouldn't worry about. Oh and here's your assignments for today, but it's only patrolling in Savannah central so you can take it easy for today."

"Thanks Chief." Nick said as they were leaving the office.

"I can't believe we just did that." Judy whispered.

"Think about it like this carrots, when this is all over we can tell him everything and explain to him why we did what we just did. I'm sure he will understand." Nick said trying to satisfy Judy enough with his answer.

"And when will this be over?" Judy asked. But Nick wasn't able to give Judy an answer since not even he knew. Judy sighed. "Let's just go do the report."

* * *

It really was just another typical day for Judy, Nick and Clawhauser, but it definitely didn't feel like it. After all, they couldn't tell a soul about something that would probably end up being the biggest case of the year. But they already knew what could happen if they did tell someone, and they just didn't want to take the chance.

Nick reminded Judy about heading to Danny's at 7:30 tonight as they were leaving the ZPD to head back to their homes. For now, Judy wanted to get some rest until then. She then got on the train she usually went on and went into her apartment. Once she was in her room, she checked the time and saw that she had another two hours before she had to be at Danny's place. But just as she was about to lay down, she heard a knock on her door.

"Who is it?" Judy said.

"It's Pronk your neighbor, can you please just open the door for a sec?"

"U-u-uh just a second!" Judy said nervously.

Judy shivered as she knew exactly what this was about. She wasn't sure what to say, but she still went for what her instincts were telling her. She then got up and answered the door.

"Hey Bucky what's up?"

"Bucky? Pronk said. "It's Pronk, I thought you could tell who was who by now."

Judy felt like an idiot after saying that. "O-oh sorry about that, yea I got to remember that." Judy laughed anxiously.

"Listen, you haven't seen Bucky have you?" Pronk asked. "It's just that I was at a comics convention with some friends last night, and when I came back home this afternoon he wasn't here. I mean I called his cell, but being the idiot he is I realized he left it here. But it's been hours and he still hasn't showed up yet, did you ever see him recently?"

"I…. can't say that I have Pronk." Judy said while trying to stay calm. "M-maybe he's just chilling with some of his friends and got clumsy and forgot to bring his cellphone.

"Maybe, I mean he is pretty clumsy." Pronk said. "But anyways just give me a holler if you see him."

"Will do." Judy said as she was closing the door. But she couldn't help but whisper something after he left her doorway. "I'm sorry Pronk."

* * *

7:30 pm. Nick, Finnick and Clawhauser were at Danny's place at the time they talked about. But the only one who wasn't there was Judy.

 _"Where is she?"_ Nick thought. " _She should've been here by now_."

"I'm sure she'll be here soon." Danny said. "You did send her the right address right?"

Nick was getting aggravated. "You think I don't know my own friends addresses by now?" Nick said.

Danny sighed. "Just call her and see how much longer she'll be."

But before he pressed the call button on his phone, they heard a knock on the door. Danny opened it and it was Judy.

"There you are, where the heck were you?" Danny asked.

"Sorry about that, I overslept." Judy replied.

"Overslept, at 7:30 at night?" Danny said.

"Your right Danny, I'm sure it's not like I had trouble sleeping last night." Judy said sarcastically. "But then again, maybe I didn't even get any sleep at all!"

"Alright, alright." Danny said. "Let's just go sit with the others by the TV."

Everyone was then sitting in a circle by the TV whether they were on the couches or the floor. But even though they were ready, no one talked for a few moments since they didn't know where to start. But Nick then eventually spoke.

"So what do you guys think we should do from here?"

"Like hell would I know." Finnick said. "It just depends on how serious our little situation is."

"Well exactly!" Danny said. "M-maybe it's not as serious as we think it is! I mean who knows, they could just be bluffing with all of this."

"Bluffing?" Judy said. "They killed Bucky Danny! And not just that, the only kind of mammals who are able to have firearms in this entire city are the ZPD. I mean, the things we use for protection around here are just tranquillizer darts. And the amount of guns that those mammals had down there basically prove what Z said. That is a legitimate business they're running."

"So then what are we supposed to do, just cower in the shadows and let them tell us what to do?" Clawhauser said frustrated.

"It's all about waiting for the right time, is what my mom used to say." Danny said.

"Oh sure, waiting until we get ourselves killed!" Finnick barked back. "I mean hell, you could even think of Z letting us live as an act of kindness! And as MY mother always said, kindness comes with a price. It's basically another way of saying he let us live, but he's going to ask for something in return. And if it's actually serious, then like I said before, we're just going to get ourselves killed."

"Well we don't even know what he'll be asking us to do anyways." Nick said. "I doubt it's going to be life threatening."

"What do we know Nick?" Clawhauser said. "You and Judy turned this from a mammal with a suspicious looking bag to some psycho threatening us, and our friends and families if we don't do what he says. God knows what he'll do next."

"Hey, don't take it out on me and Judy Clawhauser." Nick said. "You think we would've known about this, known about any of this that's happened?"

"Guys stop, this isn't getting us anywhere." Judy said. "We're all in this together, so now we just got to think of a way around this."

"I'm looking everywhere around me right now, and all I see are dead ends, literally!" Finnick shouted.

"Finnick, would it kill you to act a bit more positive to this, because your negative attitude isn't going to get us anywhere anytime soon." Danny said.

"Well then I might as well stay silent." Finnick said. "Because there's no way we're getting out of this clean."

"What do you mean by clean?" Judy said.

"I mean either way, blood is gonna shed." Finnick said. "If you ask me, it's either us or Z."

"No, no, no, no Finnick, don't say what I think what I think your saying." Nick said.

"Well I am." Finnick said. "This guys like some sort of homicidal maniac anyways, plus if he was out of the picture, we wouldn't have to worry about him giving the all go sign to kill more innocents! Oh wait, don't tell me. 'But Finnick this is taking a mammals life we're talking about here, we would never do that.'" Finnick said as he was impersonating how an innocent person would sound. "Well suck it up! We're in this mess now and this is the only way to get out of it whether you like it or not."

All the mammals had puzzled looks on their faces after Finnick's speech. They knew taking a mammals life was out of the question. But then again, they knew they could be saving lives, including their loved ones if they did.

"But even if we were to, how would we even?" Clawhauser said. "We don't even know anything about this guy. I even looked at all the files that I could think of that had to do with Zebra's like him and nothing."

"Well if we don't even know anything about this guy then how would we know his vulnerable spots?" Danny said.

"It's a shot in the dark, but I think I might know someone who may." Judy said.

* * *

Nick was then driving Finnick's van to a mammal they think may be able to help them out. Judy was in the front while the rest were in the back trying to hold on.

"Tundratown?" Clawhauser said. "Oh Nick, I hope we're not going where I think we're going."

"Oh so you've heard about Mr. Big too?" Nick said.

"Who _hasn't?_ " Clawhauser replied. "We even have his very own section in the files room! It's all full of loan sharking, drug trafficking, thieveries, you name it!

"What about murders?" Judy asked.

"W-well, not that we know of JUST yet but…" Clawhauser said hesitating.

"You see, that's the thing about him Clawhauser." Judy said. "Sure, he can be a lot of things, but he's not a killer. You can think of it as him as also trying to be a gentleman I suppose, but only this time, he doesn't kill them unlike Z. Besides, with the big success of his limousine business, he really doesn't need to do anything illegal that involves killing if it's just about making an extra buck or two.

"Well, I suppose…" Clawhauser said. "But regardless, he's been doing things he shouldn't be doing. How do you even know we can trust him with his word?"

Judy laughed. "Trust me, if there's one thing Mr. Big is good at, it's keeping his word."

"We're here." Nick said as he was approaching the gate to Mr. Big's mansion. When they got to the entrance, they heard a voice on the speaker beside Nick's side of the window.

"What business do you have being here at Mr. Big's mansion?" The voice on the speaker said.

"Kevin, is that you?" Nick said. "It's Nick Wilde here along with Judy Hopps and a few other guys. We were just wondering if we could have a word with Mr. Big for a moment to talk about a little situation we're in right now."

"I'm sorry Mr. Wilde, but Mr. Big is not here at the moment." Kevin said. "He's currently going to some other countries to talk to some business-mammals about expanding some of his businesses."

Everyone had a disappointed look on their faces. "Well, do you know when he'll be back?" Nick asked.

"It depends on how successful his presentations are to some of these mammals." Kevin said. "If they aren't, then it shouldn't take more than a week. But if they are, it will probably be a month."

"A month?!" Danny yelled. "We don't have time to wait around for a month!"

But Nick still didn't give up. "Look Kevin, do you think there's anyone else around here that might know some information about other crews or gangs in Zootopia?"

"Unfortunately, no one else knows more than the boss himself, so no." Kevin said.

Nick was disappointed. "Sigh, well whenever he returns let us know, it's urgent."

"I will." Kevin replied.

* * *

June 7, 2016

It had been more than a week after the events with Z happened. But even though it had been that long, the five were still uncomfortable with their situation with Z.

Eventually a missing report came around for Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, but what kept nagging at Judy's head the whole week was where they left his body. She at least wanted Pronk to know what happened to him, but she was still unable to say a word about it.

Around dinnertime, Nick decided to go to Judy's place with some fast-food to see how she was doing.

"So how you holding up Carrots?" Nick asked as they were eating.

Judy sighed. "I'm ok…. I guess. It's just that, all of this is just hard to swallow ya know?"

"What are talking about?" Nick said. "Tim Howlton's is the best fast-food place there is around here!"

"No, not the food Nick." Judy said. "I mean everything that has happened to us this past week. It's just, the more we don't here from Z, the more worried I get that he can call us any second for whatever it is he'll be asking us to do."

"Keep your voice down, we don't want Pronk to hear." Nick said.

"Don't worry I checked, he isn't home right now. But I'm sure he's been all over the city trying to figure out where Bucky is."

"Oh, yea." Nick said depressed. "But anyways, you shouldn't really be that paranoid though. If he wanted us to do something, he would've told us by now. Heck, he could have forgotten about all of us."

"I doubt he would forget about anyone that knows about the hiding spot under that store." Judy said. "But I'm just surprised there's not a single file about this Z guy. We don't even know how long this guy has been doing this business in Zootopia for."

"I don't know." Nick said. "But if he's as serious as he says he is, we might be looking at around….. Maybe five to seven years?"

Judy was stunned. "What, you're telling me they have been doing this for years and the ZPD have never noticed a thing? You'd think after so long they would slip up eventually.

"I'm sure they have." Nick said. "They probably made sure whoever slipped up was either not arrested under suspicion of their business, or….. 'Taken care of.'"

Judy knew Nick was probably right, but she wasn't in the mood to go on about a conversation like that. "S-so, any word on Mr. Big returning?" Judy asked.

"No, not that I know of since Kevin still hasn't called." Nick said. "But I'm sure he'll be back soon….. Hopefully."

"Yea, hopefully is right." Judy replied.

"Well, it's getting a little late so I should probably get going." Nick said. "I mean, you know how traffic is these days am I right?"

"Yea." Judy said. As Nick was about to open the door he was interrupted by Judy's voice. "How are you not afraid?"

Nick knew where this was coming from, but he couldn't give her a proper answer for now. Instead, he just played it dumb. "Because foxes are never afraid!" Nick smirked as he left her room.

"Dumb fox." Judy said as she was giggling from Nick's response.

Judy then cleaned up from dinner, brushed her teeth, slipped into her pajamas and tried to get some sleep. But at 12:00 am, her phone started ringing.

"Uuuuughh, who in the right mind would want to call someone in the middle of the night?" Judy whispered to herself.

But when she looked at the number, her entire body froze as the number 11323 was calling her.


	6. What You Can And Can't Do

**I apologize for this chapter being a day late, but I just came back from vacation and it was already too late where I live to upload another chapter. I will continue to upload week by week at the same pace. I'm actually already typing chapter 10 with this story, but I still don't want to rush just in case if I don't have time to type a chapter through most of the week.**

 **Chapter 5: What You Can And Can't Do**

Judy felt like throwing the phone out of her apartment and making sure it never met her eye again. But she knew that it wouldn't really solve anything. She then answered the phone and started talking. "H-hello, who is this?"

" _You are Judith Hopps right_?" The voice on the phone replied.

"Yes…. That's me."

" _It's chip again_." Chip said. " _And since I'm calling, I'm sure you know what that means_."

"….Yes." Judy whispered as she was unable to get a hold of herself with the situation currently.

" _Well that makes things so much easier for me then, thanks_." Chip said. " _Now before we go into details, meet us at the old warehouse just below the highway in the rainforest district on 54th waterway, dress into something dark and bring your phone with_."

"But won't they see me walking by on the traffic cams?"

" _We'll get more into that when you're here. For now, get on the train and head to the rainforest district_."

Chip then hung up immediately after his last sentence. Judy then did what he told her to by putting some black sweatpants on along with her dark blue shirt. She then put her phone in her pocket and headed to the train station. "I'm gonna die tonight aren't I?" Judy thought to herself.

* * *

By the time Judy was at the warehouse, the other four were already there, but no one else.

"Well, I guess that means everyone got the call." Nick said.

"Who the hell forces someone to go somewhere, but won't even show up to give orders?" Finnick said.

"Maybe they just haven't shown up yet." Danny said.

"But why would they give us the address already if they're not even here themselves?" Clawhauser asked.

Just then, they heard a door open on the other side of the warehouse. They thought somebody would come to them, but no steps were heard. So they decided to walk to the side only to notice a trapdoor with light in it.

"I have a feeling it's because they're already here Clawhauser." Judy said.

The five then started walking down the basement stairs as they descended deep into the basement of the warehouse until they heard the door close behind them. "Jeez, are they trying to creep us out?" Clawhauser whispered as he was shivering the whole time.

"Baby." Finnick said.

The five were then approached by another door. "Should we knock?" Danny said.

Nick then went up to the door and knocked on it. The door then opened and in front of them appeared Chip as he was laughing to himself. "I thought you guys would never come! Chip said still laughing. "I mean, I thought this would've gone a less uh…. Pleasant way when it comes to most witnesses, but I guess you guys really are smart enough to understand what you can and can't do right?"

They knew Chip was trying to lighten the mood for them, but it's hard to be enlightened by something when you're forced to do it. "Why did you bring us here?" Judy asked annoyed.

"Oh yes, yes, yes back on topic." Chip refocused. "Now if you will all follow me, there's some equipment we would like to show you before we have to get going."

Judy looked at Nick anxiously as they weren't sure what they were being shown, and about to use in the next room. "Now, before we go any further, I would like you all to take out your phones and give them to Biggy." Chip explained. "He will be taking the trackers off your phones so no one will know about your locations, and that way being less suspicious in case you get questioned. If somebody asks, just say something like you might have accidentally taken it off, or it's just a glitch with the phone.

"But what about the traffic cams, we were just seen on camera." Judy pointed out.

"Don't worry, we have our hacker Barry working on that." Chip replied. "He made sure the cameras were turned off around the time you all got the phone calls. No one in the system even noticed, if that's what you're wondering. But of course, we can't keep doing that every time or else someone will definitely know something is up. So we printed out maps of where we will drop you off afterwards and from there, we drew separate routes for all of you that you should take in order to avoid the cameras."

Biggy then handed each of them their maps so they would know which way to head home after. "And for the love of all that's good, don't lose these unless you got it memorized." Biggy said irritated.

"Alright, follow us to the equipment room." Chip said.

As they walked into the equipment room, they noticed five hoodies and a basket in front of them. None of them were sure where this was going, but they didn't want to cause any trouble before they even started their task, so they just decided to keep their mouths shut for the meantime.

"This is one of the reasons why we never contacted you five until now." Chip said. "It took a bit of time to make these for you all. A lot of us worked our asses off to make these so you all better be worth it. Now then, each of you put the one that has your name on it on.

"Why do we need to?" Judy asked.

"This is just a precaution since we don't want anyone to know about your identities. You know how many snitches there are in this city?"

Finnick laughed. "Probably a lot."

"And these are the types of hoodies that zip up all the way to your face so they can't even tell what species you are."

"These are good and everything Chip, but there's a problem." Danny said. "I mean, with mammals like rats, horses, and rabbits, don't you think they'll have good enough hearing to recognize our voices?"

"I was just getting to that Danny if you'd let me finish." Chip said irritated. "That is what these are for."

Chip Picked up the basket and put it in front of the five.

"Collars?" Clawhauser asked.

"Yes and no." Chip replied. "You see, these are voice changing collars. As long as you speak into the microphone and make sure the power is still on, no one will recognize you. Alright, get your stuff on."

Everyone then put their own hoodie on along with the collars. When they look at each other they noticed something on their hoodies.

"What's with the object drawings on our hoodies Chip?" Judy asked.

"Oh yea, that." Chip said. "That's just to show who is who so we know."

Judy's hoodie showed a carrot, Finnick's showed a pizza slice, Benjamin's showed a microphone, Danny's showed a headset, and Nick's showed a-

"Come on guys, a popsicle, really?" Nick asked.

"I'm sure you know why we used that for you Mr. Wilde." Chip said, grinning. "Alright, turn the voice collars on just to see if they work."

Judy turned hers on. "Test….. Test…. **Test."**

"Sweet, looks like they sound just fine, not even I can recognize your voices!" Chip said. "Now you can use them whenever, but just while anyone in this room or in the business is around and no one else. Also, I'd rather you didn't play with those things outside of this work anyways because I'm not interested in having you guys drain the battery like, two minutes later."

"Alright, now just one more thing." Biggy spoke.

"Biggy!" Chip loudly whispered. He then went closer to him, making sure they didn't here. "I don't know if they're ready to use those just yet."

"Come on chip, three of em are cops." Biggy replied. "I'm sure they have used something related to a USP before and know the responsibilities when using one."

Biggy then approached Nick holding out a gun. "Woah, woah woah!" Nick shouted.

"Relax you big kitty, these are for all of you in case this task goes south." Biggy said. "Yeesh, it's like you've all never seen a gun before. Oh, and don't get any funny ideas or else you, or possibly your loved ones are all going to have to be cut early from this, understand?"

The five then looked at each other as they were nodding with their heads.

"Y-yea, crystal." Clawhauser said.

"Fantastic."

Biggy then handed each of them a pistol along with some ammo. Judy, Nick and Clawhauser knew about these type of handguns, but have never used one ever since their training for in case of emergencies. On the other hand, Danny and Finnick have never shot one before which made them unsure of how to use one.

"Alright, it's time to tell you what your task is." Chip said. "We have some buyers coming in tonight just outside the city. Your job is simple, give them the guns and get the money."

"Why can't you guys do this?" Nick asked.

"Because we don't want any of our own to die."

"Well then how did you guys trade before?"

"Well, we did originally had five great mammals who were always able to do that job very well, but last month they were all killed due to a money dispute during the trade." Everyone looked in shock. "So while we're looking for other mammals to replace them, we have to turn to you five for now. Shouldn't be too hard for you all right?"

"Y-yea…. We can do it." Danny said.

"Splendid! Now I think we're all set, so all of you follow us to the van."

As they were walking to the van, Judy's thoughts kept racing at her since she didn't know what to think about that was more important. The fact that they had guns on them, being unsure if they would make it out alive from this trade, not knowing if this was the only task they had to do, or feeling like nothing but a puppet playing into the wrong hands.

* * *

They drove all the way until they reached the outside of the city. Chip then turned the van onto the tracks and headed into a tunnel.

"Wait, why are we going into a tunnel?" Nick asked.

"It's the safest way to make sure we don't get caught on the camera." Chip replied. "I think it's time you zipped up your hoodies and turned your collars on, we're almost there."

The van then came back out on the other side of the tunnel as it turned to head back onto the street. As they were driving, they saw lots of old and abandoned buildings.

"Uh, where exactly are we?" Judy asked.

"Surprisingly, I don't actually know much background to this place, but I'm sure one of your pals do." Chip said.

"Nick, do you know anything?"

"Claw Street, I've been here a few times." Nick replied. "I only went here to have a candy or two, that was being sold at a candy store that used to be somewhere around here."

"What happened though, nobodies here and it doesn't look like anyone has went into any of these buildings in a while."

"I guess you can say it was one of those streets that had a lot of businesses, but none of them were able to pull enough money in, so eventually they all went bankrupt."

"But wouldn't some other businesses have just taken over?"

"No, I don't think so. As a business man myself, I can say that most of the people in Zootopia want to do their businesses IN Zootopia. Around this area I just don't see enough potential myself, so it'd be a waste of money to buy a property you can't even make anything out of."

"Oh."

"Beep, Beep." Went Biggy's phone.

As he read the message, he knew it was time. "They're there." Biggy told Chip.

"Already?" Chip asked. "Ok, you five take these three bags and head straight through that alley, and keep following that pathway until you see the group. Once you see them, give them the bags and make sure you get the money. Now turn the collars on and go." Chip said as he opened the van door.

"But what if things get hairy over there?" Finnick asked.

"Oh yea, well we got-"

"Let's just say we learned from our mistakes when this happened last time." Biggy said, interrupting Chip. "But of course, you may need to use your own weapons as well. It's not like we've been perfect when it comes to trades that have went wrong."

Nick still wasn't sure about this, but he knew if they did this little task, they wouldn't have anything else to worry about afterward. So he zipped up his hoodie and turned his voice collar on.

 **"** **Alright, let's do this."** Nick said as he started walking.

The five then walked into the alleyway and continued following the path until their eyes crossed paths with a group of mammals in front of them.

 **"Is that them?"** Judy whispered.

 **"It should be, I doubt anyone else would know about this trade."** Nick whispered back.

"Do you have the stuff?" A raccoon from the group called out.

 **"** **Yes!"** Judy called back.

"Alright well then don't be shy, come on over here!" The raccoon said.

The five then started walking slowly until they were ten feet away from the group.

"Who the hell are you freaks supposed to be?" The raccoon asked. "Where are the mammals we would usually do our trades with?"

 **"** **They're dead."** Finnick said, leaving some of the mammals shocked. **"So we're all you guys got for now."**

"….W-well anyways, why the hell do you all have a faced-up hoodie on and a voice changer? What are you trying to act like, some crazy teenkits on Howlloween?

Nick started to get a little frustrated. **"Look, are we doing this trade or the 'let's make fun of everyone' game?"**

"Fine, fine." The raccoon replied. "So where's the stuff?"

Clawhauser then picked up the three bags and threw it over to the group. An Armadillo then picked up the bags, brought it over to the group, unzipped it, and made sure all the right amount and types of guns were in the bag.

"Yep, they're all in here." The armadillo said.

 **"** **Ok, now hand us the money and we'll be on our way."** Danny said.

The group nodded with each other knowing that they were satisfied with what they had. As one of the lions carrying another bag stepped forward prepared to hand it to them, the raccoon spoke.

"Hold on their Jet. I'm still not a hundred percent happy with this situation. I mean come guys, how do we even know these mammals are with Zamiel? I mean, do you see any implication here that shows they are?"

"Zamiel… is he referring to Z?" Nick thought.

 **"** **Don't worry, you can trust us enough to know that we're with Z."** Judy replied.

"Oh yea?" The raccoon said. "Then take off the collars, unzip the hoodies and show us who you are. I'm sure that will give us enough satisfaction to trust you."

The five then looked at each sure as they were unsure what to do. Nick then broke the silence as he spoke.

 **"** **I apologize for the inconvenience, but we're going to have to keep our identities sealed until further notice."** Nick knew how stupid he was sounding, but he knew it was better to try and convince them in a professional manner.

The raccoon then started to get more agitated. He then pulled out a pistol from behind him. "I also apologize, but that wasn't a request, it was an order."

"Lenny, what are you doing?" Jet asked. "We already got what we needed, let's just go."

"No... somethings a little off here, I can feel it." Lenny replied.

The five then weren't sure what to do now that they had a gun on them once again. Nick tried to think of a way around it, but not even he had an idea about what to say to them.

"Since I don't have all day, I'm going to give you all to the count of five, or else I'll shoot someone." The raccoon said. "One."

 **"** **Look, just give us a second to think about this!"** Clawhauser shouted.

"Two."

 **"** **We have to do it."** Judy whispered **.**

The raccoon then took the safety off the gun. "Three."

 **"** **Ugh, we're screwed either way, but it beats dying don't ya think?"** Finnick whispered.

"Four."

 **"** **O-okay okay, we'll do it, we'll do it." Nick said.**

They then took their collars off, but hesitated to unzip their hoodies.

The raccoon couldn't wait any longer and pointed the gun at Nick. "…..fiv-"

Just then, a shot rang through the window of one of the buildings in the alley, as it hit the raccoon straight through the chest.

"LENNY!" Jet yelled.

Wondering where the shot came from, Judy then looked up only to see multiple mammals at each window with their guns up. "DUCK!" Judy called out.

Shots rang everywhere throughout the alleyway from the street to the buildings as mammals from Lenny's group were dropping like flies. Nick, Judy Danny, Clawhauser and Finnick were all staying ducked at a nearby trash bin when suddenly, Jet came out and attacked Danny. Danny tried to fight back, but Jet overpowered him with his strength.

Meanwhile, shots were still pouring everywhere as Z's mammals were trying to finish off what was left of Lenny's group.

"RETREAT, RETREAT GUYS!" One of Lenny's guys called out. "LET'S GET OUT OF HERE, WE'RE OUTNUMBERED!"

Nick and Judy tried to stop Jet from beating Danny to death, but he still ended shoving them away to the wall. Clawhauser was still hiding behind the trash bin fearing for death.

"You… killed….my….best….FRIEND!" Yelled Jet, as he was had Danny to the ground hitting him hard in the face. "THIS ONE IS FOR LENNY!" But before Jet could give the final blow-

"BANG!"

Jet then fell to the ground as he was shot in the head. Judy and Nick then had stunned faces after not only seeing Jet get shot, but seeing Finnick pull the trigger on him.

"Finnick….." Nick said silently.

Judy then went to check on Danny. "Danny, Danny are you still there, can you hear me?"

"Y-yea… I'm ok." Danny replied, as he was laying on the ground after getting some hard hits in by Jet.

The gunfire finally ended as the rest of Lenny's group had fled from the alleyway. Z's mammals then came out of the buildings to take a look at the aftermath.

"Is your friend going to be ok enough to head back on his own?" Chip asked as he approached them while he was driving the van into the alleyway.

"You know, if you guys had told us that we had backup literally right in front of our noses then maybe this could've gone differently, and not turned into a damn bloodbath!" Judy yelled.

"I'm sorry, but Biggy didn't want to take the chance of you guys giving away our position."

Judy acted in disgust. "And you call yourselves being gentlemen in your little business."

As Nick was treating Danny's bruises the best he could, he heard someone coughing in the middle of the bodies. As Nick was walking towards it, he then realized it was Lenny.

"T-the…. Fox cop guy….?" Lenny said, as he was laughing while trying to speak. "Listen closely… *cough*, if you continue on…. Worser *cough* things will come. Just…. Know this. Lying….. Will never always be a bad thing to do."

Nick then watched the raccoon as he slowly closed his eyes and layed still. that right there, was a moment Nick would never forget.

* * *

June 8, 2016

That night, the five took the routes they were asked to take and headed back to their homes to rest, even though they still couldn't rest after everything.

Z's men ended up moving the bodies in order to hide any evidence that could be found at the scene.

The next day, Nick and Judy did go to work, but Clawhauser ended up calling in sick. Judy and Nick couldn't blame him though. After seeing mammals get shot right in front of your eye, it would leave a lot of people shell shocked.

After work, Nick decided to try and call the phone number 11323 again just to confirm that he and his friends were finished with Z's group.

" _Please state your name, and with whom you'd like to speak to_." The voice on the other end said.

"Nicholas Wilde. I-I just wanted to try and have a little chat with Z if he doesn't mind."

" _Please stay on the phone for a few minutes, he's just finishing up with something."_

Nick was waiting on the phone for a few minutes to eventually hear Z's voice.

" _Mr. Wilde, I never thought I would be the one to receive a call from you." Z said. "What would you like to discuss_?"

"Actually, I was just wondering if we were…. all done and everything with what you asked us to do."

Z sighed. " _Listen Mr. Wilde, I know how hard these past days have been on you, I really do. But, we're not done with you five just yet_."

"Just yet?" Nick said, as he was in disbelief. "What do you mean we're not done just yet?!"


	7. Into Friendly Territory

**Chapter 6: Into Friendly Territory**

"Mr. Wilde, I understand how hard you and your friends must be taking all this, but we are still in need of your assistance." Z said, as he was talking on the phone with Nick.

" _Assistance_?" Nick said. " _Then get your own damn mammals to do this work! What the heck makes you even have the slightest assumption we're cut out for it?!"_

"Well, I would assume it when I hear about mammals who got themselves into it in the first place." Z replied, as he hung up the phone.

Z sighed and was then getting back to work, until he heard a knock on his door.

"Who is it?" Z asked.

"It's Chip." Chip replied. "You called me and asked for a summary about last night's results?"

Z then remembered asking him about it after he left last night. "Ah yes, come on in."

Chip then opened the door and took a seat in front of Z's desk. "Is there a specific part you want me to start at?" Chip asked.

"Let's start with the body count."

"Hmm, well none of us were killed, but two of us suffered some minor injuries. Donnie was shot in the arm and that Danny guy got some hard hits to him on the head. As for Lenny's gang, Twelve were originally there, but because Lenny started asking questions, eight including Lenny were killed."

Z sighed. "Frickin Lenard. I never liked trading with that raccoon, but he always had a good offer for what he was asking for. Still though, I never expected him to make that stupid of a move."

"We're putting it up on our note to self-list. It's Making sure our buyers know who they're approaching instead of blindly. Surprisingly though, That Finnick guy even got one of them."

"How did you deal with the bodies?"

"We put them in trucks, brought them miles away from Zootopia and put em underground somewhere in the Kafya desert."

"What about that antelope fellow had to deal with last week?"

"He's a Kudu actually sir and I…. don't actually know. I don't think his body left Zootopia when Biggy drove away with him, you should probably ask him."

Z then stood up and started walking slowly until he stopped to look at some of the pictures on his wall. "And the four that got away, what do you propose we do?" Z asked.

"W-well, I don't see how taking the rest of them out would be of any help to us. Besides, I'm sure we can use a few more paws around here if push comes to shove?"

"Chip, we have too many paws on us as it is, now that those five came around. It's easier just to take them out rather than having to have more of our eyes on these mammals."

"With all due respect sir, but I still don't see how they can even be a threat to us now. I mean, these are mammal's lives we're talking about here."

"Yes, I suppose your right. I guess I'm just overreacting, You may go now. Oh, and I also wish your mother well too."

"Thank you sir."

Chip then got up and went out the door. Z then went back to his desk as he was thinking to himself. " _Well if Chip doesn't have the nerve to, I'll just have to find someone who does."_ And that's when he had an idea.

* * *

June 10th, 2016

"Knock, knock, knock"

"Benjamin are you in there?" Nick asked, as he was knocking on the door to Clawhauser's apartment. "It's Nick, I just wanted to try and check up on you. It's just, you haven't been to work in like, three days now so…."

Nick then pulled the door handle as he realized the door was unlocked. As he was walking inside, he found a bunch of candy wrappers and soda cans on the floor with the sound of the TV on in the background. He then opened the bedroom door to see a giant lump laying on the bed.

"Clawhauser?"

"AHHHHH!" Clawhauser yelled, as he heard Nick's voice.

"It's just me buddy, calm down." Nick said.

It took a few moments for him to fully calm down. He then stretched and then sat up on his bed.

"How did you get in here?" Clawhauser asked.

"Well I came to see you, but you weren't answering the door so I checked to see if it was unlocked and what do ya know, it was."

"Why are you here Nick, shouldn't you be at the ZPD?"

"I finished work an hour ago, when was the last time you even checked the clock?"

Clawhauser then looked at the time on his alarm clock. "Huh, what do you know."

" But I'm just coming to check up on you. Like I said, we haven't seen you at work in like three days now, most of the officers have been wondering what's been up with you."

"You really think I'm capable of going to work right now, especially after what happened only a few _days_ ago?"

"I feel the same way big guy. That was a night I will never be able to forget. But considering the situation, we have to move forward from this."

"Is that how it is Nick, mammals drop dead right in front of us and you expect us to just move on from something like that?"

"You think I want to do it Clawhauser? Come on, think about what's at stake here! And I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna let the people close to me drop dead like those guys in that alleyway."

Clawhauser then started crying. "I'm sorry Nick, it's just that I don't know what to do anymore. I can't take any more of this insanity!"

"I know Clawhauser, I know. But we'll get through this in the end, you just, you just have to have hope in an end to all of this."

Clawhauser then took a big sigh, now knowing what he could fight for to stay stabled. Freedom.

"Oh, and I got a text back from Kevin saying that Mr. Big will be back in a couple days." Nick said. "So me and the others were also just curious to see if you would be okay with coming along as well. Don't worry, we're going into friendly territory here."

Clawhauser looked up at Nick and nodded. "Yea, I think I'll be able to."

"Alright, I'll send you the address to Finnick's place when the time comes since we're using his van. And FYI, (For your information) I would lay off with the junk food since it seems like you've had one too many."

"Oh yea, that. It's just, sometimes I find eating to be a good way of relieving stress."

Sometimes Nick wondered if Clawhauser was really a cheetah.

* * *

June 13th, 2016

Clawhauser, Nick, Judy, Danny and Finnick were all in Finnick's van as they were driving back to the arctic shrew, Mr. Big's to find out more about Z, his group and what they were dealing with here. Nick got a text a few days ago saying Mr. Big had returned and he had time to talk in a few days.

"Yep, it's just up here." Nick said.

"I see that Nick." Finnick said, as he was driving to the entrance of Mr. Big's mansion.

As the van approached the entrance gate, a voice on the speaker came on.

"Who is this and what's your purpose coming here?" The voice asked.

"Kevin, is that you again?" Nick asked. "Listen, it's Nick again. Me and my friends came to talk with Mr. Big, remember?"

"Very well." Kevin said.

The gates then opened up and Finnick drove in. Finnick then parked in the driveway and the five got out of the car while being approached by a bunch of polar bears.

"If you will follow us lady and gentlemen." One of the polar bears said.

The five were then escorted by the polar bears to the second floor, where they were then put to a stop as one of them opened the door.

"Buona sera Mr. Big." The polar bear greeted. "Questi Sono I cinque mammiferi che volevano parlare con voi."

"Grazie, sei scusato." Mr. Big replied.

The polar bears then left the room and closed the door leaving the five and Mr. Big alone to talk.

Nick then spoke. "Mr. Big sir, thank you for letting us see-"

"Humph." Mr. Big said, holding out his paw.

"Oh, right." Nick said, as he came up to Mr. Big and kissed him on the paw.

"Nicky, it has been a while. How you doin?"

Nick sighed. "Well, we could be better."

"Why would that be?"

"We've got problems… Big problems."

"Big enough to have to talk with me about it?"

"Yes, and we can't even let the ZPD know about it. You see, a couple weeks ago, me and Judy began investigating some suspicious looking mammals carrying odd bags on two of the same streets. Only, since we dug a bit too much into it, they captured the five of us since the only ones who knew about that incident were us."

"Hmm, go on."

"They threatened to kill our family and friends if we didn't do what they said. In the outcome of those events, one of Judy's neighbors was killed."

"You mean that Kudu mammal I heard about on the news yesterday?"

Nick nodded slowly. "Then they made us do a gun trade with some other group, but the trade went wrong and... lots of mammals died that night."

"Oh dear. What have you five gotten yourself into?"

"That's why we came to talk to you." Judy said.

"Well, after admitting all these crimes that have happened, it must mean you are all truly desperate."

"We kind of are, yes." Danny said.

"Hmm, well if you're referring to weapon supplying, it must be Zamiel's work."

"Y-yes, that's the guy!" Clawhauser said.

"What do you know about him Mr. Big?" Judy asked.

"I can say he's a powerful, and clever zebra." Mr. Big replied. "You see some years ago, some of my polar bears heard about him on the streets and what he does. At one point, I wanted to try to do some business with him to try and get weapons for defense with my crew. So with me and him being fine business men ourselves, we decided to meet mammal to mammal.

* * *

October 19th, 2007

"Mr. Big, what an honor to meet you in the flesh." Z said, as he kissed Mr. Big's paw.

"And to you to fine sir." Mr Big replied.

The two then took a seat as they were having dinner at 'Oceans Calm', a fancy dinner restaurant.

"So I have come to learn that you may be interested in doing business with me." Z said. "Oh, and I also took the pleasure of ordering the food, it'll just be normal spaghetti. Will that be alright?"

"Of course." Mr. Big replied. "And yes, I am interested in doing business with you."

"You are aware of the types that I distribute and the rules I follow, right?"

"Indeed I am."

"Well doesn't that make things so much easier, am I right?" The two then laughed. "So what exactly is this all for?"

Mr. Big sighed. "A few months ago, a personal friend and worker of mine Jimmy, he was just one night minding his own business and having a few drinks at the bar. That is until an elephant put a knife on his back. With no protection, the elephant not only took his wallet, but killed him and everyone he saw at the bar to make sure no witnesses were left behind. I don't want an incident like so to happen ever again to my mammals."

"Yea, sounds like you got it tough on you. So may we discuss the fees involved with our deal?"

"Of course. We are willing to give you $50,000 for this list of weapons."

Mr. Big then handed him the list of weapons he was asking from Z. But as Z was taking a look at what Mr. Big was asking for, he seemed unsatisfied.

"Umm, Mr. Big, with the weapons and the amount you are asking for, I believe this will cost more than just $50,000."

"Really, how much are you asking for?"

"$250,000."

Mr. Big just laughed. "Get out of here Zamiel."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said get out of here. You really think I'm gonna use a large chunk of my money over some of your minor materials?"

"Well I wouldn't call it minor at all, these are some serious weapons we're selling to you that you can't find anywhere else, I mean literally."

"I apologize Zamiel, but the answer is still no. Now get out of-"

Z then slammed his hoofs on the table as he stood up. It also caused a few heads to turn.

"No one tells me what to do you dirty little rodent!" Z shouted.

"Is there a problem over here gentlemen?" The otter waiter asked.

"It's nothing waiter." Mr. Big replied. "Just one too many drinks is all."

"Ah, I see." The waiter said. "Just make sure you aren't being too noisy if you will."

Once the otter walked away, Mr. Big and Z gave death stares to each other.

"You don't want me as an enemy Mr. Big." Z said.

"Is that a threat I hear?"

"I suppose it is. And if I could, I would be your worst nightmare if you choose not to do this deal."

"Why, would you kill me?"

"Oh no, not just you Big. Your family as well."

Mr. Big took a big sigh and a few moments before speaking again.

"Zamiel, you think you may have the power on your side, but that may also mean you don't know a thing about me. But I'm sure you know by now that I'm not someone who kills in my business. But I also know a mammal or two who can take care of you, or anyone that tries to hurt my family, which everyone in my business is like a part of to me as well. And to me, family is everything.

Z was silent for a moment before standing back up and responding.

"Our businesses are to never cross paths again. You keep your own territory, and I'll keep mine. And if they ever cross for _any_ reason whatsoever, I'll go to extreme measures if I have to because I will _not_ be made a fool of."

Z then grabbed his suitcase and stormed out of the restaurant, leaving the bill to Mr. Big.

* * *

"He then threatened my family, but I told him there was no way it was going to happen so he stormed off." Mr. Big said, as he was finishing telling the story to Judy, Nick, Danny, Clawhauser and Finnick.

"Did he ever trying to do anything to you, or your mammals after that?" Judy asked.

"No, he never did." Mr. Big explained. "As I told you, he was clever. Clever enough to know that if he _did_ try something, it would just be a never ending war with pointless deaths on both sides, and I feel the same way."

"So you think we should go to the ZPD for help?" Finnick asked.

"No, that would not be a good idea." Mr. Big said. "You see, the reason he never did anything to me or anyone else close to me was because he also knew what I was capable of. But for you five, he's probably so relaxed about it, he even has his own mammals on standby to give the orders to kill your loved ones."

"So then what do we do now?" Judy asked.

"Not even I have been able to have done it yet after all these years." Mr. Big said. "But if you can, outsmart him at his own game. Only then will he see what you five are truly capable of. I do not want to jump to any conclusions, but if death is something that can fear the strongest, you five will end up resulting into something you and I thought would never become. But no matter the outcome, I hope you all stay safe."

"Thank you Mr. Big." Judy said.

"We'll see what we can do." Nick said

"I apologize, but that is all the time I have to talk right now."

"Right, well thank you for letting us chat with you, and I suppose we'll be heading out." Judy said. "Oh, and tell Fru Fru and little Judy I said hi!"

"Will do my child." Mr. Big replied.

The five mammals then exited the mansion, went back into Finnick's van and headed out. Most of them weren't sure if they got all the information they needed, but now they knew what road to use, even if they weren't sure how positive they were with where they were going.

* * *

Later that night….

"Thank you for coming." Z said, as he was talking to the mammal in front of him. "Now I understand how much you and your friends have went through in these past couple of weeks, trust me, I'd be feeling crazy as well. But hear me out, I have another task for you."

Z then handed the mammal four files of four separate mammals. "These are the four mammals from Lenny's group that escaped during the shootout that happened back on the ninth. It is possible they could have seen your faces when you took off your hoodies, so if they recognize even one of your faces, it could jeopardize this whole business."

"What do you want me to do, take them out?" The mammal asked.

"And this is my only offer. In return, I am willing to let you and only you go from this, and I promise you neither you, nor your friends and family will get hurt. Well, other than your four friends who we still won't be finished with."

"I've got a better idea." The mammal said. "How about the five of us all work together on this, and in return you let all of us go because this is obviously not be a job I can do alone. and this is my only offer right now Z."

Z sighed. "Alright, you got yourself a deal."


	8. Living A Life With Guilt

**Chapter 7: Living A Life With Guilt**

June 14th, 2016

"Alright, alright, take a seat." Chief Bogo said, as he was coming into the bullpen at the ZPD. "Before I hand out the assignments, I'd like to make an announcement. We seem to have another big problem on our paws. Just yesterday, eight mammals were reported missing after their family members have not seen them for over a week now. That's why I'm going to have some of you investigating into it. Now then, assignments."

Judy and Nick wanted to try and point the ZPD into the right direction, but they knew they had to do it unintentionally, or else Z would eventually find out. As Bogo finished handing out all the assignments, Judy came up to him.

"Uh Chief Bogo? Judy asked.

"Yes Hopps?" Bogo said.

"I was just curious to know if there have been any leads on the whereabouts of the Bucky Oryx-Antlerson case, my neighbor just continuously keeps asking about it."

"I'm afraid not Hopps. There was no evidence saying that he left the apartment so we sent Wolford and Grizzoli over there, but not a single trace was found that showed he was still in the apartment. It was possible he was kidnapped in the night, but nothing was seen on the security cameras. It's almost like he purposely flew out his window and disappeared into the night."

Judy was disappointed, knowing that not even the ZPD could find his body. "Well thanks for the update."

"No problem." Bogo replied.

But as Judy and Nick were walking out the door, both of their phones started ringing.

"Could it be…?" Judy said.

"No, no it can't be." Nick said, as he was reaching for his phone.

Both of them were in shock as the number 11323 appeared on their phones.

"No, no, no not now."

Judy and Nick then went outside of the ZPD as they were answering their phones.

"What?" Judy said.

" _Miss Hopps right?"_ The voice said. _" Now I know this is a bad time with you being on duty and everything, but we need you to come meet up with Z back at the warehouse on 54_ _th_ _Waterway at the rainforest district. He has another assignment for all of you."_

"Isn't that the same warehouse we went to, to try and do that gun trade?" Nick asked.

 _"_ _Precisely."_ The voice replied. " _Now this won't take too much of your time for today so_ _the quicker you come, the faster we can get this over with for today."_

"How many more _assignments_ is this psycho going to give us until he lets us go?" Judy asked.

 _"_ _Well if you can get this done, this will be the last."_ The voice replied.

Both were surprised after hearing that.

"This isn't a trick or anything, is it?" Nick asked. "Like, this is legitimately for real?"

" _Yes it is."_ The voice replied. " _Now get over to the warehouse now."_ Both voices then hung up the phone after they told them where to go.

"We should go see if Clawhauser got the call as well." Judy told Nick.

Judy and Nick went to go talk to Clawhauser at the front desk, only to bump into him at the door.

"Oh, Clawhauser!" Judy said.

"Oh, hi Judy, hey Nick." Clawhauser replied.

"So, where are you heading off to?"

"Where do you think I'm heading off to, didn't you guys get the call as well?" Clawhauser whispered.

"Hmm, well if Z's guys called you two I'd assume he called Danny and Finnick as well." Nick whispered.

"What do you think he'll be asking us to do?" Judy whispered.

"I don't know, but something tells me we might not like it." Nick replied. "Well, we better get going. Clawhauser, are you coming?"

"No way, I told people I was going back home to get something I forgot, and my house is in city central, not rainforest district where you guys should be doing patrolling right now."

"Maybe that's why he told us to come today." Nick said. "He may have known me and you were doing patrol over there which would give us a good opportunity to speak with him. Just use the map Chip gave you in the meantime Clawhauser.

"Will do." Clawhauser replied.

The three then got into their patrol cars and headed to the rainforest for a little chat with Z.

* * *

"Knock, knock, knock."

"Z it's us." Judy said. "We don't have all day so just open the trapdoor so we can talk already."

The trapdoor opened, but not by Z. "If you'll follow me, I will lead you to Z." The leopard in front of them said.

They were then lead downstairs opening the door back into the equipment room. From there, they were approached by a few more mammals and the man of the hour, Z.

"Welcome back." Z said. "I apologize for the inconvenience since I know you should all be at work right now, but I just wanted to get this over with."

"Get what over with?" Danny asked.

"You know, I was just like you five when I started doing this business." Z said. "I was a good kit, had a wonderful family and a great future. But I ended up sniffing where I shouldn't have and then got taken in. I was then forced to do things I didn't want to do. And then… Then it came to a point where they forced me to kill an innocent. But I simply couldn't do it. So you know what they do? They kill my father, but I still can't do it. They kill my mother, I still can't do it. They kill my three little sisters…. And I finally do it. And you know what I do next? One night, I find them all as drunk as pigs, so I pick up a rifle and end all ten of them."

The five stayed quiet after learning about Z's past and what he's capable of.

"And you know what, I actually started to like that business. I liked people fearing me and knowing _who I am_. Such a great feeling…."

"Not to be rude or anything, but cut to the chase Z." Nick said.

Z sighed. "Very well." He then took out four files from his suitcase and handed them to the five mammals. "Do you recognize these mammals?"

"No, Should we?" Judy asked.

"June 7th, do you all remember what happened that night?" Z said.

"How can we not?" Clawhauser said.

"That night, Lenard Ruthertail and his crew were doing a gun trade with you five." Z explained. "However, whatever you said, it messed up the trade and made Lenny pull out a gun, causing the deaths of eight mammals, all from Lenny's group."

"These are the four survivors from Lenny's gang." Finnick said.

Nick put an eyebrow up. "Wait, how do you know?"

"Because we discussed it last night." Z said. "It's not like I'm always going to call all five of you every time I need something."

"What?" Nick said.

"All I wanted to do was to make sure the opinion of one of you five were said before I finalized this assignment." Z said.

"Why are you showing us these files anyways?" Danny asked.

"Well, we're just giving you these because you might need the information." Z replied. "After all, those are the mammals you five will be _eliminating_."

"WHAT?!" Judy said, as she threw a file back at Z. "THE HELL WITH THAT, I AM NOT KILLING A MAMMAL!"

"Oh, but it's your responsibility Miss Hopps." Z said. "If you had made that gun trade go smoothly the way it was supposed to, we wouldn't even be having this problem right now. And maybe by now, all you five would be off the hook but you didn't so now you still have one more problem left in the way."

"I-I'm not doing it." Judy said. "I-it's just, it's just inhumammal!"

"I had a feeling it would come to this." Z said, as he was raising his right paw.

All the other mammals then drew their guns on Nick, Judy, Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser.

Z laughed. Judy was then furious as she took a step closer to Z. "Ah, ah, ah." Z said. "All I have to do is close my paw and all of you will be on the floor before you knew you were even there."

"But what if we're unable to take all of them out, then what?" Danny asked.

"Oh then that's okay, we can always replace them with someone else." Z said, as he threw some pictures on the ground.

The five were then shaken as the pictures showed the people close to them with exes on them.

"No, no…." Clawhauser mumbled, as Z was seeing the fear in their eyes.

"I will give you all two months." Z said. "That is way more than enough time to do this job. But just know, every mammal you don't deal with, that's how many we will kill from your loved ones."

"I'm sorry, I'm still a little confused about this here." Nick said. "Why exactly can't you guys do this if you're so concerned about these four mammals?"

"Come on Mr. Wilde." Z said. "Y'know, we can be a lot of things, but don't think it's that simple to get away with murder inside Zootopia. I'm not going to risk my crews' tail just to take care of a bunch of howligans, especially since its possible even a tiny trace we leave behind can lead to the destruction of this business! And that is where you five come in."

"Oh, so basically just like Bucky, Huh?" Judy said.

"Precisely." Z said grinning.

Nick didn't want to admit it, but knew he and his friends were getting trapped into a corner in which only killing can get them out of.

But Nick still tried to speak his way out of it. "But still, I don't even know if two months is enough time to deal with four m-"

"TWO MONTHS." Z said raising his tone. He then picked up the pictures he left on the ground to show to them. "Or else…."

Z then took out a match and lit all the pictures on fire, right in front of the five to show them what would happen after their time limit.

"We're done here." Z said.

Without saying another word, Z then walked back outside and was driven away by most of the mammals that came with him.

"Now then, get back to your jobs and act normal." Biggy said.

The five then headed back out from the trapdoor and went to their vehicles. While Finnick was getting inside his van, Nick approached him.

"Hey Finnick?" Nick said.

"Yea Nick?" Finnick said.

"Look I know this is a weird occasion, but I want to try and talk to you about some things. You know, just to understand more about what's been happening lately."

"Uh….. Sure. You can come to my place later tonight and we can talk about it."

"Sure, sounds good to me."

"Alright, see you around then."

"Cya buddy."

Everyone then drove back to their jobs as they were hoping they weren't gone long enough for their bosses to find out. But as they were driving, the thought of killing still couldn't escape any of their heads.

* * *

Judy and Nick were still doing their normal job with patrolling the rainforest district, but it was hard for them to stay focused on their work all day. Both of them stayed silent for a while throughout the drive.

"What're you thinking?" Nick asked silently.

"Were not going to kill anyone." Judy replied.

Nick sighed. "Look Judy, think about what's at stake here. I mean Z even said that-"

"I KNOW WHAT Z SAID." Judy said loudly. "But seriously Nick, do you really think any of us are capable of taking a mammals life, especially four of them?"

"Finnick was." Nick said shooting back.

"Nick, we've been over this already." Judy said. "You know he didn't have a choice. If Jet had gotten one more good punch in Danny, he would've died. I mean we tried to stop him, but he was too strong. You can't blame Finnick for something like that."

"It's not that I wonder if it was the right thing to do, it's that he was okay with doing it."

"Look, my point is we need to find a way to do this without killing anyone."

"What, are we supposed to just kill them and bring them back to life? I don't think so, it doesn't work like that Judy."

"We just got to find a loophole to this…"

"There is none."

"Oh and like we need your negative attitude here."

"I'm just stating the facts here, and you know what I realize about Z and why he told us his past?"

"No, what?"

"You see, he also said his family members died every time the time limit ran out."

"So, what about it?"

"It's signifying that if we don't do this job by the time limit, our family and friends will continue to die one by one!"

Judy was running out of things to say. "We just got to find another way…"

"THERE IS NO OTHER WAY!" Nick yelled. "Just face it Judy, we are going to have kill those mammals, or our mammals will die and then we're next."

"Who are you?" Judy asked furiously.

Nick shook his head and stayed silent.

* * *

Both of them never spoke for the rest of the day. Judy thought Nick didn't understand what it would be like to take a mammals life, and Nick thought Judy didn't understand that if they didn't kill the four mammals, even more innocents would be killed in their place.

They still never spoke after their shifts were finished, and went their separate ways after work. Later that night, Nick then walked over to Finnick's place to try and discuss about recent events.

"DING, DONG." Went Finnick's doorbell as Nick pushed it.

"Hey Nick there you are, I was beginning to worry!" Finnick said as he opened the door.

"Heya Finnick." Nick said.

"Come on in."

Nick then came inside as he saw some ordered pizza on the table by the TV. The two then sat down and started eating a slice.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Finnick asked.

"Well, I just wanted to know more about what you and Z talked about the other night." Nick replied.

"Well let's see…. First he called and told me he wanted to talk to me down at the cheesecake store again, then he handed me the four files of those mammals. At first he wanted Chip to do it, but he said he was too much of a coward to do it, so he requested me to do those assignments alone. But after I told him it would be impossible to do it alone, he then let me do the job with you and the others and in exchange, all of us would go free."

"So wait, you encouraged him to have us do this sick assignment with you?"

"Hey, it's just like Judy said, we're all in this together. To me, that means if I go down, you're all going down with me."

"Just like Jet right?"

"Oh so what, you just want me to see one of my own friends get beaten to death right in front of me, is that it?"

"You could've just shot him in the arm or leg, you didn't have to kill the damn guy."

"First of all, I've never really used a gun before so don't expect me to know where I'm shooting even while aiming. And second, Z's guys would've shot him anyways right after that so I just did it earlier than them to try and _save_ a life."

Nick sighed with his paw on his face. "Well now Judy continues to talk about how hard it is to kill a mammal. If you ask me, and I don't blame her really, she just doesn't want to be living a life with guilt in it."

"Guilt, what's the guilt in it if you're being forced too?"

"Probably the thoughts of how you could have done it differently."

"Yea maybe."

Nick couldn't talk about it anymore, so he tried to change the subject. "So what's been new with you Finnick?

"What, like social wise?"

"Yea."

"Well nothing really, it's just crazy having to juggle so many part time jobs nowadays. Life was so much easier for me before you joined the ZPD, we made hundreds every day! Now you barely have time to do one little pawpsicle hustle the entire month."

"On the bright side, at least I'm proving mammals wrong on what foxes are stereotyped to be. Can't you tell by the way mammals have been treating me and you lately?"

"So what, they don't look at us like a bug that needs to be squashed, big deal."

Nick laughed. "Of course you wouldn't since you're never impressed."

"I am so! I just…. Never think about showing it."

"Uh huh, sure you don't."

"I do!"

"Then prove it."

"Ok, I uh…. I'm impressed you became a ZPD officer, uh….."

Finnick couldn't think of anymore since whatever popped into his head, he just really wasn't impressed. Suddenly, Nick's phone started to ring.

"Hang on a sec Finnick I gotta take this." Nick said, as he looked at his phone realizing its Judy. "Hey carrots. Look, about what happened in the patrol car today-"

" _Nick, call Danny and Finnick and tell them to meet me at my apartment right away."_ Judy said.

"Why, what is it?" Nick asked.

" _I think I know how we can resolve this without killing."_

Nick was surprised. "Uh, sure we'll be right over."

" _Okay, I'll see you soon_." Judy said as she hung up the phone.

"What do you mean _we_ will be there soon?" Finnick asked.

"Judy says she's onto something about an idea that we can do to avoid killing anyone."

"Impossible."

"It's what she said and it sounds like she meant it, so let's go."

"Ten bucks says she doesn't even have an idea, or even a good one."

Nick grinned. "You're on."


	9. Danger

**Chapter 8: Danger**

Zootopia General Hospital. _He_ went there nearly every day to see his mother. She had lymphoma cancer. He walked into the hospital, got to the floor his mother was on and opened the door to where she has been staying for nearly 3 months now, after her condition started to get worse.

"Well hello Simon, come to see your sick mother again?" The mother said laying in her bed.

"Well of course, you know how much I care about you, right?" Simon said. "Oh and these are for you."

Simon then left some flowers on her side table. He always left some for her since he knew it would cheer her up, and could keep her mind off of what she was going through currently.

"Oh, they're beautiful honey. And of course I know how much you care about me. You and your sister mean the world to me and always will. Especially after your fathers passing…"

"Yea…"

"But you really don't need to worry about me that much dear. I'm sure you got your own life to think about. And I really wonder how you're able to pull through seeing me nearly every day with your busy schedule you keep talking about."

"Hey, just know that I'll always have time for family no matter what."

The mother smiled at her son. "So what have you been doing to make money anyways? Surely it must be a job that pays well if you're paying for my treatment and your own expenses."

Simon giggled. "Yea it sure does."

"So, what is it?"

Simon hesitated. "Just…. Well it's not one, it's just a few part timers I found here and there that pay better than the average part time job, that's all. W-what has Vanessa been doing for work lately?"

"You've called her haven't you?"

"Well, not really. It's not exactly one of the things I have time to do lately."

Just then the door opened. Coincidentally, Vanessa appeared.

"Oh Vanessa sweetie, how are you?" The mother said. "We were actually just talking about you."

"Oh really?" Vanessa said. "what kind of talk mom?"

"Turns out your own brother doesn't know about your job."

Vanessa laughed. "He really doesn't? Some brother you are. I work as a clerk at the palm hotel. And thank goodness they have air conditioning in the lobby, or else I wouldn't be able to last the entire day in that hot weather. Did Simon uh…. Tell you about what he _does?_

Simon was starting to get stressed. "Vaness, do you mind if we talk outside for a sec?"

Vanessa gave Simon a dirty look. "Sure."

The two wolfs then headed out the door to talk as Vanessa closed the door so their mother couldn't hear.

"You still haven't told her yet?" Vanessa whispered.

"Hey, it's not easy to tell your own mother that you're working for an illegal business that sells weapons, takes orders from killers, and even involves a lot of killing along the way. I mean, how do you think she'd take that from her own son?" Simon whispered.

"Then why the hell did you decide to start doing that work in the first place?"

"Because that was the only way to make fast money from. You know how much worse her condition is getting. We weren't able to save dad, so this time I'm stepping up and trying to save our mother before it's too late."

"But even so Simon, I'm your sister and I'm worried about you. This so-called business you're working for is dangerous. The ZPD have even been going crazy about all those missing mammals which I have a feeling those mammals you're working for had something to do with. I'm just worried one day you'll wind up in prison or even worse, dead."

"I know Vanessa, but I'm making sure things won't turn out that way especially while knowing what I have to lose."

"But just imagine what mom would think of you if either of those two things were to happen to you. She wouldn't even try to make it out of her condition. And that's another thing. Whatever you do, just make sure me and mom don't get involved in this. Neither mom or myself would ever forgive you if you did."

Simon sighed. "I know that. I'm assuming mom wouldn't even take my money no matter how much she needed it for her treatment if she knew where it was coming from."

"Well you got that right."

"I'll watch myself out there, I promise." Simon said sincerely. "And if you're wondering if I ever killed anyone, the answer is no. The last thing I want is for mom to see _me_ as a monster."

"Alright well, I'm going to go back inside. You coming?"

"No, I think I'm going to go home and try to get some rest for tomorrow. It's already late as it is. But tell mom I said to get well soon."

"Alright sure. See you later."

Vanessa watched Simon as he was walking towards the elevators still with a worried expression on her face as she was opening the door again.

"Where's simon?" The mother asked.

"He just said he needed to get some rest for the day tomorrow since it's late as it is. He also told me to tell you to get well soon."

"Oh, well yes I suppose it is getting a little late, and how nice of him to say that. You should get going as well then."

"What? But mom I just got here, are you sure?"

"Trust me dear, simply seeing you and your brother's faces occasionally is enough to keep me the happiest mother in the world."

"Ok then, You try and get some rest. I'll try to come back in a few days or so."

"Okay then Vanessa, goodnight."

Simon meanwhile went down into the parking lot and went inside one of the vans where a mammal was waiting.

"Eugh, what's that smell Bill?" Simon asked the polar bear.

"I don't know, the stench in the van has been around for a couple weeks by now, I guess I'm just used to it." Bill replied.

"So what's the boss want now?"

"He just wants a few mammals to transport some of the newly manufactured weapons to the cheesecake store for storing."

"Well why does he want us to do it, and seriously what is that smell?"

"I'm sure he's just looking for some mammals that are on duty currently to do it."

"Well, at least it's a good way to make some fast mon-" Simon then paused as he had a shocked expression on his face after figuring out the source of the smell.

"What, what is it?" Bill asked.

"Bill, back when you silenced that Kudu from the apartment window, where did you burry his body exactly?"

Bill's eyes then widened. He then looked at the storage compartment and finally realized what he forgot to do.

"Well isn't this just perfect." Simon said, as he slapped his paw on his face.

* * *

Nick and Danny were in Finnick's van as Finnick was driving them to Judy's apartment. There, they would be hearing about the idea she had they could do to avoid killing anyone.

"Did she sound sincere on the phone?" Danny asked.

"Yea for sure." Nick replied.

"I'm still not buying it though." Finnick said. "Z is a serious mammal when it comes to these assignments of his and Judy thinks she can still mess with it?"

"Well she _was_ the one responsible for the night howler serum switch back at the museum." Nick stated. "If she hadn't messed with that, then I most likely would've ripped her to shreds and Bellwether would still be on the streets poisoning every single predator in all of Zootopia."

"Your point?" Danny asked.

"My point is she may actually have a plan _Finnick."_ Nick replied.

"Pfffft." Went Finnick. "I don't need you and your sassiness, I believe what I want to believe Nick."

"You're just saying that because you don't want to lose your ten bucks aren't you?" Nick said.

"What, no!" Finnick yelled. "It's just a personal opinion."

"Right." Nick said sarcastically.

Finnick shook his head and continued driving. A few minutes later, they reached Judy's apartment. The three then went into the apartment, went to her room number and knocked on the door.

"There you three are, where were you?" Judy said, as she opened the door.

"Literally, we couldn't be anymore faster Judy." Nick replied.

Judy groaned. "It doesn't matter, just follow me into the alleyway. We don't want anyone overhearing this."

"Wait a minute, where's Clawhauser?" Danny asked.

"I'll get to that, but first let's head to the alleyway." Judy replied.

The four then went out of the apartment into the nearest alleyway while making sure nobody saw them. Judy then place her laptop on one of the empty cardboxes and turned it on.

"So where's Clawhauser Judy?" Nick asked.

"I'll get to that, but first I want to discuss with you my idea."

"Lay it on us." Finnick said.

"Ok, so you know how Z wants this antelope, this goat, this fox, and this panda dead right?" Judy said, as she handed out the profiles of the four mammals.

"Yea." Nick said.

"Well what if we were to find bodies that look exactly like those mammals?"

The four were shocked. "Oh Judy, that's messed up!" Danny said.

"But it's an option." Judy said. "Just hear me out guys, all we need is to find bodies that match what those mammals would look like, burry them up somewhere and two months later, we will show Z the bodies to make him think those are the mammals so he thinks we really did do it!"

"Yea, but how would he take it if he, or any of his mammals spotted the person on the streets of this city?" Nick asked.

"That's why we need to convince those four to get out of Zootopia while they still can, or else they'd be dead mammals."

"Dressed in what, this?" Danny asked.

"No, with the hoodies and voice changing collars we were given. And if you ask me, chances are if they saw our faces they would've told the ZPD by now. Z's just miscalculating on that one, but of course he'll deny it."

"And how do you think they are going to react once they realize we're the same hooded mammals from the shootout?" Finnick asked.

"We'll be able to convince them eventually if we tell them what we want."

"I wouldn't put all my chips on that one Judy." Finnick said.

"Well you're going to have to if we're gonna do this."

"But where will we even be able to find bodies for this?" Nick asked.

"Well that's when things start to get a little tricky." Judy replied. "See, at the shootout, I saw all those mammals drag the bodies into a truck that drove to somewhere out of Zootopia. If we can find out where those mammals keep the bodies, we may be able to find some that match what those four mammals look like."

"Can't we just dig some up from the graveyard?" Finnick asked.

"I'm not interested in being a grave robber anytime soon Finnick."

"Ok, but how are we going to find out the location?" Danny asked.

"Simple, we just need to find someone on the inside of Z's group who will tell us."

The three of them laughed. "You make it sound like it's that simple!" Finnick shouted.

"Because it is." Judy said. "After all, I may know someone who can tell us."

The three stopped laughing as they were surprised at what Judy was saying. "What, who?" Nick asked.

"Chip." Judy replied.

The three were confused. "Chip, why the hell would Chip tell us?" Finnick asked.

"Well you said so yourself Finnick, Z said Chip was too much of a coward to do it so he turned to us. It sounds like he just didn't want anyone else to die. So if we told him about the situation and how we can resolve it without any death, he may be able to give us the info we need to find those bodies."

The three looked at each other with some confidence in their eyes.

"Well, it is possible." Danny said.

"Oh give it a rest Danny." Finnick said. "We don't even know this guy's real name or anything about him."

"Actually, that's why I've been doing some research." Judy said. "You see, Clawhauser only searched for the Nickname Chip in the police database and nowhere else. So when I looked it up on zoogle, I found this news article made a year ago."

The four then looked at the laptop that showed the news article 'WOLF COLLAPSES IN CITY CENTRAL.'

"Just read the first paragraph." Judy said.

The three then started reading the first paragraph of the article.

 _On September 29_ _th_ _, female wolf Margret Clawchip collapsed on the fountain in front of city central earlier that morning. She was rushed to the hospital where she was later announced to be in critical condition. Family members were immediately alerted to this which included her son and daughter. This was what her son had to say. "You can call me Chip, but yea it was crazy when I heard about the call saying that my mother collapsed in public, I didn't know what to think at that point." The doctors say it's possible she may have lymphoma, but it is uncertain._

 _"_ You can call me Chip…." Nick said.

"That's right, Margret's son is Chip." Judy said. "So I searched on the database for a Margret Clawchip and saw that the husband passed away, so I knew right away it had to be the son."

Judy then clicked on the son's profile as everyone recognized the wolf in the picture.

"Therefore, Chip's real name is Simon Mavrick Clawchip."

The five were then impressed by Judy after seeing her figuring out Chip's real name. They even realized this plan could actually work if they played it right, and Even Finnick thought he may have underestimated Judy. All of them ended up being pretty confident in the end.

"So, what do you think?" Judy asked.

Finnick shrugged. "…. It could work."

"No, no it'll definitely work." Nick said. "I'm in."

Judy smiled. "Really? Thanks Nick!"

Danny groaned. "Ah what the hell, if it's about saving mammals, I guess I'm in as well."

Nick then stared at Finnick as he kept his eyes shut while facing the ground. He knew he didn't have to do this, he could just be able to get all four of them in one place and explode them all at once with a fast and painless death. But he still decided to anyway.

"You guys really do have twisted minds with this plan of yours." Finnick said. "But I don't got much to lose anyways so I'll let you drag me along with this."

"Yes!" Judy shouted, as she ran to Finnick and hugged him tightly. "Thank you so much for being on board Finnick!"

"Alright, alright." Finnick said. "There's no need to get all sappy about it."

Judy Laughed. She was glad that everyone was with her in this now that she had mammals to turn to without doing it alone.

"Alright, I guess we're all ready to start this!" Judy said excitedly.

"Hold on a second there Judy, we're still forgetting about one other mammal in the circle." Danny said.

"Yea, why did you decide to talk with all of us, except for Clawhauser?" Finnick asked.

Judy sighed. "He decided he didn't want to be a part of this."

"What?" Nick said.

"I confronted him about it an hour or so ago first before I talked to you guys since he wasn't picking up his phone. So I decided to go to his apartment to see if he was there, and sure enough he was."

"But…" Danny said.

"But he didn't take it very well."

"What do you mean Judy?" Nick asked.

* * *

1 HOUR EARLIER…

 _"_ _Turns out, he purposely didn't pick up since he thought he knew what it was about. But even after I told him what it was really about and explained my plan to him, he still didn't agree. In fact, he even went a lot more than overboard."_

"Well, what do you say?" Judy asked, as she was talking to Clawhauser in his apartment by his kitchen table.

"I'd say you're out of your mind." Clawhauser replied.

"But Clawhauser, if you can at least consider it-"

"I said no Judy!" Clawhauser shouted. "Look I'm sorry, but I don't want to be a part of something that is just _filled_ with danger in it."

"Danger?" Judy said rhetorically. "Danger is something we've been in since the start of all this Clawhauser! What difference will it make if we do this?"

"Then what difference will it make if we go to the ZPD? There's danger in that anyways."

"You _know_ we can't do that Clawhauser. If we told the ZPD about everything, Z and his group will kill every person close to us until there's nothing! And then he'll finish the job by probably doing it to us himself."

"Well it's too late for that Judy."

Judy was confused. "W-what are you talking about?"

"I'm saying my mind is already made up."

Judy was speechless after realizing what Clawhauser was saying. "Y-you don't mean…"

"Yes, I do mean it Judy." Clawhauser replied. "I'm going to the ZPD tomorrow to tell them everything."

Judy was shocked after hearing the words Clawhauser said coming out of his mouth.

"Are you crazy?!" Judy shouted. "Do you realize what you're even saying right now?"

"Yes, I know they will be going after my family, but I can easily put them in witness protection."

"Oh yea, and what about our families, you selfish mammal!"

"You can decide what to do, but I'm not stopping with this decision."

Judy was then at a stalemate, knowing that no matter what she tried to do next, Clawhauser was going to speak up. She knew Clawhauser was having a rough time with all that's been happening, but she never knew he was one to simply give up."

"Now please, just go." Clawhauser said silently.

"W-wait!" Judy shouted. "J-just hold on a second Clawhauser. Look, I understand you may have had enough of what's been happening over these past few weeks."

"Yeah." Clawhauser said rolling his eyes.

"But what you have to understand is that we still have options left to do here. I'm not saying you have to be a part of it, but now is not the time to give up."

"I learned that you can't be too sure about things Judy."

" _Listen_ Clawhauser just give me until the time limit to do this plan and if it doesn't work by then, then you can go to the ZPD. But until then I'm begging you, please don't."

Clawhauser stayed silent for a moment, trying to think about what was best. But the way he looked at it, it was a choice of either doing what was best for himself, or what was best for others. He then finally spoke.

"Until the time limit and then I go straight to the ZPD."

Judy sighed in relief. "Thanks Clawhauser. So until then, try not to say a word. I promise you this plan will work out, you just need to have faith in it until then."

Clawhauser kept his eyes on the ground while staying seated. He then politely said to Judy, "Now please get out of here."

"Okay, I'll leave you alone."

Judy then got her laptop and went to open the door. Before she closed it, she looked back at Clawhauser as she saw the despair in his eyes. She then closed the door and took a big sigh as she mumbled to herself, "This _will_ all end one day."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, not only will Clawhauser not be assisting us with this, but if we aren't able to do this plan, he's going to the ZPD?" Danny asked.

"That... pretty much sums it up yea." Judy replied.

"Wait, so that fuzzball wants us to do the dirty work and not himself?" Finnick said.

"He's afraid, what'd you expect." Nick said jumping in. "Look, I know what Clawhauser is doing is selfish, but now's not the time to be whining about it. Even if he were to tell the ZPD by the time limit, what difference would it make? We would already have to be going to them anyways if this fails since Z's group will be washing away our family and friends before we even know it."

"But still…" Danny said.

Nick had an annoyed face on him. "Danny, in life you're probably not always going to get the type of help you want. This is one of those occasions."

Danny groaned as he sat down. "Well this is going to suck."

"Oh yea, it will. But I guess we're just going to have to suck it up then won't we?" Nick said rhetorically.

"Finnick chuckled as he was patting Nick on the shoulder. "Yea, I guess we do."

"Well, we should try and get some rest." Judy said. "We can discuss more about where we should start with this plan tomorrow."

"Tomorrow, can't you give us like a few days just to have our thoughts together before we do this?" Danny asked.

"Danny, the sooner we do this plan, the faster we can finish all this up." Judy replied.

"Well, you got a point there." Danny said.

"That reminds me, Nick we may need to take a few vacation days off of work if we want to get this over with by then."

"Yea, I suppose we'll have to." Nick said."

"And that goes for you two as well if you have something you'll be doing within the next few days."

Danny sighed. "Fine, I guess I can reschedule a thing or two.

"Yea, same." Finnick said.

The three then said their goodbyes to Judy as they headed back into Finnick's van and were driven back to their apartments. Judy decided to keep her eyes on the stars for a few moments before heading back into her apartment room. The thing that stayed on her mind was the fact that she knew exactly what she was doing with this plan, but she still wasn't a hundred percent sure if it would work, even though she never admitted it to the others.

* * *

 **This is just an announcement I'd like to make. Lately I've been feeling a little bad that y'all only get one chapter from me every week. So next week, I will be uploading two chapters! One on Wednesday, and one on Thursday. I will most likely do something like that again in the future, but not constantly since I don't want to run too low on chapters to upload. Hope you guys enjoy it!**


	10. Errors Are Not A Choice

**Chapter 9: Errors Are Not A Choice**

June 15th, 2016

It was the early afternoon at a Snarlbucks where the four decided to finally meet again. They all got their drinks and took a seat in a shaded place. None of them really spoke for a while, they just sat there looking at the table while drinking their coffees and hot chocolates. It took at least ten minutes until someone finally spoke.

"So….. What's new guys?" The panda asked.

The three then look at each other with unsatisfied expressions. "Not a lot." The antelope said.

"Oh…." The panda said back.

Silence then took over the table once more for a few minutes. Most of them even began to wonder why they came.

"Listen boys, I understand our business may have taken a little turn to a dead end, but we still have lots of other businesses to join." The fox said.

"Like we have any choice right now." The goat said.

"Yea, I mean after that gun trade, we basically lost the entire business of guarding." The panda said.

"But do you think Zamiel is finished with us?" The antelope asked. "How do we know he's not going to try and tie up loose ends?"

"Because I'm sure he would've done it by now." The fox replied. "Chad, there's no need to feel paranoid about this, don't you think Zamiel's group has done enough on us as it is?"

"Yea, and even Lenny getting killed is bad enough." The goat said. "Now how are we even going to find another group to work for? I doubt any famous mammal would want to ask for our assistance."

"You got that right Shawn." The panda said.

"Well, have you guys heard anything on the streets about employment?" The fox asked.

"What's the point, I'm sure they'll say no since most of them know about the trading incident, or at least whatever they heard on the street." The panda said.

"So, what's your Point Ron?" The fox asked.

"My point is nobody is going to want guards that can't even protect themselves, you got eight of our mammals dead from our group to prove it."

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm thinking of getting an _actual_ job that doesn't involve anything illegal." Shawn said. "Like, is it that hard to do something for typical society, is it that hard to be typical modern mammals?"

"Well, you got a point there Shawn since it really isn't." Chad said.

"You three can bicker a bunch more if you want, but I think this little business is officially over so we're just going to have to move on with our lives." Ron said. "And really, it's best if we don't see each other again. Mostly for safety sake."

Ron then stood up and walked out of the door without saying another word. The three, stressed as they were, still knew deep down Ron was right.

"Well I just finished my coffee so I think I'm going to head out as well." Shawn said.

"Yea same here." Chad said. "You want a ride back to your place Amber?"

"No that's alright." Amber replied. "I still have a lot of more of my latte to finish up, but thanks anyways."

"No worries." Chad replied.

The antelope and the goat then got up from the table and headed out the door as well, leaving Amber by herself to finish her drink.

Over the past few weeks, a lot has been going through Amber's mind after the Claw street massacre her and her friends not only witnessed, but nearly became a part of. She was having a tough time still trying to mourn over all her friends that were killed, and trying to forget the horrible sights she saw that night. Nothing seemed to be going right for her, even she realized it herself. She still tried to get her act together and move on from the incident every day though, and she knew one day she would be able to.

She then finished up her latte and was about to head out, but was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around as she was shocked to realize it was one of the masked mammals from that night.

Amber began panting loudly as fear was starting to take over her whole body, but the mammal put his paw over her mouth as the mammal showed her the silence sign.

"Shhhhh….." Went the mammal.

Amber was then able to speak calmly. "What do you want?" She whispered.

"I just need you to come to the back of the store for a second." The mammal whispered.

Amber was still frightened from the situation. "How do I know you're not just going to kill me when I do?" She whispered back.

"If I really had no choice but to, I would've just slipped something into your latte." The mammal replied. "But just meet me at the back for a moment of your time, I just wanted to let you know about something."

* * *

"If this plan fails, you're so taking the blame Hopps!" Danny said loudly, as he, Judy and Finnick were in Finnick's van on their way to Chip's house after figuring out his known locations from the police database.

Judy laughed. "In your dreams Danny. Like I have said and like mammals have said before, we're all in this together whether you like it or not. And I also heard from a certain someone that if I were to go down, you would all be going down with me, right Finnick?"

Finnick rolled his eyes. "So anyways, do you think Nick will be able to convince those four, he texted me earlier saying that he spotted all four of them over at some café in Savannah central."

"Well, he can be the most convincing out of the five of us so he's as good as shot as any." Judy said. "He was good at convincing people to do anything he wanted when he was a con, wasn't he Finnick?"

Finnick thought about it. "Yea I'd say he was pretty good at it back in those days when me and him were pulling off some acts on the streets."

"Then you really shouldn't worry about it." Judy said.

"So how much longer do we have until we reach Chip's place?" Danny asked.

"We should be approaching it pretty soon." Judy replied. "Let's just hope this will go well, otherwise were going to have another big problem on our paws later."

"That's what I'm still worried about." Danny said.

"So Danny, what exactly is it that you do for work?" Judy asked.

"Well, I'm mostly an automobile repair mammal down in the rainforest district. "Danny said. "But I mostly fix motorcycles than cars, motorcycles I'm more used to the mechanisms in it."

"Oh, did you go to any type of college or university of some sort?"

"Well, I did go to Furrnad College for a while to get a degree in engineering."

"That sounds good, how's your job treating you now?"

"Well, other than an annoying Gerbil as a boss, I would say I'm pretty good at it. And especially when you do get along with all the staff, it's makes things ten times easier to do your job right instead of mammals yelling at your face twenty four seven."

"Yea that's for sure." Judy said mumbling. "If I hadn't proved myself to the ZPD after the night howlers incident, I would've been nothing more to mammals but an annoying ghost around the ZPD. Eventually, I'm sure someone would've been in a grumpy enough mood that if I wrote them up a ticket, they would have charged right at me."

"Could you be able to take down a Rhinoceros that was charging at you?"

"Hmm, it would be tuff but if I played it right, I'm sure I could."

"Dang, it must have taken you a while until you were able to at that academy huh?"

" _Oh yea._ " Judy said dramatically. "Out of the nine months I was there, it took me at least six months until I was starting to get the hang of taking down bigger mammals."

"Sounds like you must've been a hell of a trier it you held in there for a whole six months until you were able to do it."

Judy chuckled. "I was pretty arrogant around then yea. Speaking if which, Do you chat with your brother wolford frequently?"

"Matthew? Well, Occasionally we would have meet-ups just to see how things are with both of us. But it's mostly when we go to our parents place since they constantly keep inviting us. I guess they just can't accept the fact that we aren't pups anymore, or they continuously keep missing us."

Judy rolled her eyes. "I know that feeling."

"I'll bet."

"Were here guys, this is the right apartment right?"

Judy checked to see the name of it so they knew this was the right building Chip was in. "The Tamia yep, this is the one."

"What floor is it?" Danny asked.

"Floor five, room nine." Judy replied.

"Alright, let's go." Finnick said.

The three then went into the apartment and went up the stairs to the fourth floor. They then went across the hall as they approached room nine.

"I better knock I suppose." Judy said, as Danny and Finnick nodded.

"knock, knock, knock."

It almost felt like minutes as they were waiting for someone to answer the door. All of them were nervous, but they didn't want to show it. Finally, they saw someone twisting the knob as the door opened.

* * *

"Ok, were at the back of the store now, so what do you want?" Amber asked, as she and the hooded Nick were behind the Snarlbucks café to have a chat.

 **"** **Oh boy, where do I even begin?"** Nick said rhetorically, as he had his voice changing collar on with his paws on his waist.

"You can begin with getting prepared to get slapped in the face and put to the ground after what you did to my friends!"

 **"** **Me, nor my friends ever intended on letting that happen Miss Tailsmith."**

Amber looked at him in disgust. "Oh _sorry_ , I never realized you didn't intend on it, maybe you can tell the others that as well. Oh wait, THEY'RE DEAD."

 **"** **And you and your friends may also be if you don't listen."**

Amber was shocked after hearing that. This time, he got her full attention.

 **"Listen, I truly am sorry about what happened to those guys, but there's another problem that's crossed our paths.** **I'm sure you know about Zamiel and what he's like by now, am I correct?"** Nick asked.

"Yea…." Amber replied, as she was still concerned.

 **"** **Well Zamiel thinks the survivors of that shootout might have possibly seen one of our faces, so I guess you can say he wants to try and tie up loose ends."**

"What, but none of us ever saw any of you or your friends faces!" Amber cried out. "And what's the point of wearing that anyways? It's never been like this when we trade with other mammals, whom we would see their faces crystal clear."

 **"** **Zamiel is just a little too worried you may have recognized us, that all."** Nick replied. **"And I do believe you when you say you didn't see our faces, but no matter how hard you try to convince Zamiel, he'll never believe it."**

Amber was starting to feel like she and her friends were getting cornered. "So then what the heck do you want us to do?"

 **"** **I'm gonna need you to tell your friends that all of you are going to have to get out of the city within two months."**

"What, so you want us to just leave and never come back?"

 **"** **Well it's either that, or you four will all die. And I would suggest changing your names as well so nothing else will be heard of from you four anywhere else. You know a mammal for that don't you?"**

"Well yea, but that's not the point!" Amber stammered. "Why are you and your friends even doing this for us in the first place?"

 **"** **We all came to a conclusion and decided that there has been enough bloodshed that's happened, and we don't want any more to happen."**

Amber paused for a few moments before responding. "How do I know I can trust your word? After all, you're also a fox and I know a bluff when I see one."

Nick shrugged. **"What other choice do you have?"**

"….I-I can go into witness protection."

 **"** **Yea, but they'll know you're still alive. They won't stop hunting you down until you're dead. Zamiel could even kidnap and kill some ZPD officers just to figure out your location."**

"Okay, okay I get it." Amber said, as she got the point. "But won't he still be looking for us even if we leave Zootopia?"

 **"** **We're doing what a friend of ours told us to do, we're outsmarting him."**

* * *

The door then opened as the moment came when Chip's eyes met with Judy, Finnick and Danny's eyes. Chip was beyond shocked after seeing those mammals in front of his door.

"Uh, hi." Judy said.

Chip looked to make sure nobody else was around before whispering to the three. "What the hell are you three doing here?!"

"We came to ask for a favor from you."

Chip stretched his fur on his head with his paws. "Just get in here before someone sees you guys."

The three then went into his room as he shut the door behind them.

Judy spoke. "So I was hoping if we could ask you about-"

"How in the world did you find out where I live, did Z tell you?" Chip asked.

"No, we just found out who you were and looked on the police database about your whereabouts." Finnick said."

"You what?!" Chip shouted.

"Hey don't look at me, it was Judy who figured it out." Finnick replied.

"Look it doesn't matter, just tell me why you're here." Chip said.

"Well, we need some information from you, and there's no one else we can think of from Z's group that would tell us." Judy explained.

"Yea, and what makes you think I won't?" Chip asked.

"Because you seem like someone who isn't in this business to kill, I've even noticed it ever since we first met."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"I know you didn't want to do the job of taking out those four mammals, so tell me another one."

"What, what are you talking about?" Chip asked. "Z told me it wasn't a big deal, he said he didn't have to go to extreme measures."

"He probably just said that since he thought you would've been too bitter on the situation." Finnick said. "He's really just trying to find someone else who will actually do it."

Chip shook his head as he was turning around. He still didn't want to believe that Z would lie to him about something like that.

"Listen chip, all we need from you is to tell us the location where you guys would burry up bodies." Judy said.

Chip looked at them stunned. "Excuse me?"

"I know it sounds crazy at first Chip, but just hear me out okay?" Judy said. "So we had this idea that if we can find four bodies that look similar enough to the four mammals from Lenny's group, we won't have to kill them."

"Oh yea, and what's going to happen if he recognizes those mammals from some other job, what then smarty pants?"

"You know, you don't have to help us if you want, the other option can be to kill them." Danny said.

Chip opened his mouth to say something, but he still couldn't manage to get the words right. he then turned away shaking his head with his hands on his waist.

"Come on guys let's go, he isn't going to give us anything anyways." Finnick said. "I guess we're going to have to resort back to plan A."

Judy gasped. "But-"

"Come on Judy." Danny interrupted.

Judy still wasn't understanding why Danny and Finnick were giving in so easily, but by the time she could even think about it, they were already approaching the door again.

As Danny was opening the door again, Chip spoke once more. "Wait." The three then turned around facing Chip. "You guys really are that desperate aren't you?"

The three knew where this was going. "Truly desperate Chip." Judy replied.

Chip sighed, as he was putting his paws on his face. "If I tell you guys and if this plan of yours actually does end up going south, don't mention anything about me if they ask you how you did it, can you do that?"

The three nodded. "Of course we can." Judy said.

"Even if you guys do, I'll still deny it by saying something like you forced me to."

"We get it Chip." Danny said.

"Well, they're out somewhere in the Kafya desert. I can get the coordinates from my notebook, hang on a sec."

"We really appreciate what you're doing here Chip, thanks." Judy said.

Chip then went out of the room to get the notebook, while the three stayed put in the living room. Judy was still wondering why they would have let it off so easily and not arguing back about the request for the location.

"What was all that about?" Judy asked aggravated.

"What was all what about?" Danny asked back.

"Y-you guys were ok with it after Chip denied us the first time, you even accepted the fact that we'd even have to go back to plan _A_."

"Oh, that." Finnick said. "You can call that a tactic in hustling. You basically try to guilt the person at the last second, making them feel like it's their only chance to do something they're offered."

"Yea, I started to catch along with Finnick's drift when he started speaking so I went along with it as well." Danny said. "We're already in this plan too far to quit now anyways Judy and we know that. So errors are not a choice if we want this to go smoothly."

"Well, I suppose…." Judy hesitated.

Chip then came back with a slip of paper and held it out to Judy.

"Is this the…" Judy said.

"Yea, it's the coordinates to the bodies." Chip said. "Just get to that location, grab whatever four bodies you'll need and get out of there as fast as you can. We don't want a single soul to be seeing you mammals sniffing around there."

"Thanks Chip." Finnick said sincerely.

"Well, we have to get going with this, so just make sure no one in Z's group will find out about this as best as you can." Judy explained.

"I'll see what I can do." Chip said.

The three then got up from the living room sofa and walked out of Chip's door. Chip then laid down on the sofa and groaned.

"What have I gotten myself into?" Chip asked himself.

* * *

May 30th, 2016, after the incident with Nick at the cheesecake store.

Chip then went home and searched up the licence plate he took a picture of right when he came back from the cheesecake store. He then realized the car belonged to the ZPD.

After realizing what that run-in with the fox was about, he immediately dialed Z's number.

 _"_ _Zamiel speaking, how may I assist you with your taxes?"_

"Zamiel, it's me!" Chip said aloud.

 _"_ _Chip?"_ Zamiel said. _"What the hell do you think you're doing calling me while I'm at work?!"_

"I apologize for calling around this time, but I need to talk to you as soon as possible!"

 _"_ _*Sigh* just meet me in my office at the piggy bank and we'll talk."_

Chip then took the train to the piggy bank to see Zamiel. He then went into the bank and waited by the waiting room. Not even twenty seconds later did he hear a call for his name.

"Mr. Clawchip, I'm ready for you." Zamiel's voice called out.

Chip and Zamiel then headed to the office. Zamiel then opened the door while making sure no one was around to hear. He then took a seat in front of his desk, while Chip got a chair and took a seat in front of him.

"Now what was this super important emergency that you even have to come in while I'm working at my normal job you told me about?" Zamiel said.

"Well I think the ZPD may be onto us." Chip said.

Zamiel raised an eyebrow and got Chip's full attention.

Chip then started chatting with Zamiel about the encounter with the fox and his suspicions of him. He then told him about searching up the licence plate and realizing it was a ZPD car.

"So something tells me we're not being as careful as you'd think we are." Chip said.

"Oh no doubt about it." Zamiel said. "If you say you were encountered by a fox, then it must be that fox cop we've heard about on the news. It's most likely his partner that rabbit cop was in there as well."

"So then what do you propose we do?"

"We take them out before they spill whatever info they have to anyone."

"Woah, woah, woah, we don't have to kill the damn mammals, can't we just tell them to back off?"

"Things like that have never worked in the past, no matter what the threat is Chip. I know you're still a rookie with this business, but eventually they can't take the guilt and try to fess up, but luckily we take care of that before it happens."

"Well then what if we asked for more from them than just backing off?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, don't you think we could use some of these mammals for our work? Think about it, both of them are cops and are more trained than most likely half of our group. We could really use them for our work before we decide their fate, don't you think?"

Zamiel thought about it. "Well, it is possible. I'm sure they're even trained enough to know the consequences of spilling the beans."

"Exactly!"

"Well, I suppose we could go along with it, see where it leads us. I'm going to go ask Sam and Peter and see if they can try and run a background on these mammals. In the meantime, I want you to follow that fox and the moment he's alone, I want you to get him and his partner to the ZPD to make sure any evidence of earlier today is dealt with. And take Bill with you on this one."

"Yea, there was this carrot pen he seemed to be holding out while we were talking, does that mean anything?"

"Oh yes, I remember the night howlers case and something about the bunny using a carrot recording pen to record mayor Bellwether's confession. That may very well have been the same pen he was holding."

"So what do you propose?"

"Well first, I want to get that pen to make sure there's no evidence left from this afternoon, and then I want to chat with them personally."

"P-personally sir?"

"Yes personally, is that a problem Chip?"

"W-well no but I just worry things may not go very smoothly if we try to do all this at once."

"If we have to go to extreme measures then we shall Chip the end. Now go."

Chip sighed. "Yes sir."

* * *

Sometimes Chip wondered what the best thing to do was. He never imagined he would be the one in the middle of it all. He didn't want to lose lives when he joined this business, but he also didn't want his own life to be lost in the process. But at the very end, he knew one of those things would very well happen.

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Chapter 10, Just In Time**


	11. Just In Time

**Reminder: To anyone who did not read my previous chapter I uploaded yesterday, I suggest you read that first before you read this. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Just In Time**

June 16, 2016

It was night time when the five drove in a van out to the Kafya desert. From there, they would be searching for four similar looking bodies of the four surviving mammals from Lenny's group.

"Tell your friend at the repair shop we said thanks, we really needed a bigger van for this." Judy said.

"I'll be sure to tell him." Danny said.

"Are you sure we'll be able to have enough trust in those four mammals that they can get out of the city within two months?" Judy asked.

"Well Amber said she would tell the other four about the story and will probably convince them well enough to have them out of the city by then." Nick explained.

Judy chuckled. "Why would you think that, because she's a fox?"

"Well foxes can be pretty persuasive you know."

"So I've seen." Judy said grinning. "You so thought about it didn't you Nick?"

Nick's eyebrows raised. "Thought about what?"

Judy laughed. "You know what."

"What, Amber? Hah, _yea_ _Right_." Nick said sarcastically. "She doesn't even know who I am anyways."

"We're almost there guys, start getting the shovels out!" Finnick shouted from the front seat.

"Well it's about damn time, we've been driving for like what, four hours?" Danny said rhetorically.

"Four and a half actually." Finnick said.

Danny shook his head and started taking the shovels out.

As they entered the Kafya desert, Finnick checked on the slip of paper Chip gave them with coordinates on it to pinpoint the exact location of the bodies. When they arrived at the exact spot, the four of them were surprised to see so many dug up parts of the ground. That is when they knew they were at the right location. They all then got out of the van and picked a spot to start shovelling.

"Just try and look for a dug up area where it matches the sizes of a fox, goat, panda, and antelope!" Judy shouted. "It should be able to narrow down the process of this digging!"

The four then started digging in separate spots for a similar body to the four mammals. Hours passed, but only one body was found so far for the goat. All four grew tired and were getting exhausted, but still kept up the pace and continued searching for three more.

* * *

June 17th, 2016

It had been over twelve hours in the mission to look for four similar looking bodies that matched Lenny's four surviving group members. Only two were found so far with them being the goat and the panda.

"ugh, it's so hot out here." Judy mumbled to herself panting. "Hey Nick, you got anymore to drink? "It's just…. I've already drank all three of my bottles."

"Same here carrots, same here." Nick said, as he continued shoveling.

"Danny, Finnick, you guys got anything?" Judy asked.

"Nope." Finnick replied.

"Nuh-uh." Danny replied.

Judy exhaled deeply. "Well it's been twelve hours, and we've only been able to find two bodies so if you ask me, I don't think we can keep this up for much longer."

"I can go get us some more water, we passed down a supermarket not too far from us right?" Finnick asked.

"No way bro, they'll see you on cameras." Danny said.

"I know that Danny, that's why it's better if I go alone. I doubt anyone would be surprised if I was wandering around this area. Frankly it would be hard to find _any_ place where anyone would be surprised I'm at these days."

Danny sighed. "Alright, but make it fast because it's scorching hot out here and I could pass out any minute now."

It had been six more hours and Finnick was able to bring a whole pack of water with him. Eventually, they were able to find another body of the antelope.

Judy sighed. "Let's just find that last body already and go home."

"Agreed." Nick said.

Even though they had more drinks to sip, they were still completely over heated due to the steaming weather. Judy and Nick wrapped their sweaters around their heads with their tank-tops still on, while Danny and Finnick both had their shirts off showing nothing but fur. It surely wasn't easy having to look for not only a fox, but a female fox and one that looked similar to Amber. To most of them, it would feel like finding a needle in a haystack.

"This is pointless….." Danny said dried sounding.

"We'll find one eventually Danny, just keep digging." Judy said, as she was nearly too tired to even talk.

It took two more hours until Nick was able to complete digging up a grave for what turned out to be a female fox.

"Hey guys, check this one out!" Nick shouted. The three then rushed over to where Nick was and took a look at the body. "So, what do you think?"

"Oh thank heavens, we finally found one!" Danny yelled out loud.

"What do you think Judy, does she look similar enough to Amber?" Nick asked.

Judy grabbed Amber's profile and looked at her picture trying to compare Amber to the body in front of them. "Hmm…. Yea, she looks similar enough."

The three guys then sighed with relief. "Then let's get these bodies in the truck, we should try to re-burry them somewhere near Zootopia." Finnick said.

"Why?" Danny asked.

"Because we want them to assume we had to bury them somewhere close to where we supposedly killed them." Finnick replied. "Otherwise they may find it too suspicious we buried them close to where they bury their bodies."

"Let's just get them in the van and be on our way please, it's a god thing we took a bigger van this time." Nick requested. "And I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to try and get some sleep in before we go back to work tomorrow, we haven't gotten any sleep in nearly a day now."

The four then crammed all four bodies in the back of the van and ended up having a very uncomfortable ride back for a number of reasons. Three hours in, one of them spotted a dirt road.

"Hey, maybe we can bury them down on that road." Danny suggested. "There's dirt there so maybe we can find some open space to put them under in."

The three then looked at each other as they were giving positive signs. "Sure, it doesn't seem to be too far from the city." Nick said.

Finnick then drove up the dirt road and eventually came to an area with no one to be seen in sight and nothing mammal-made. The four then took the four bodies out of the van.

"Yeesh, I might have to clean up in there after we get back." Finnick said.

"Ya think?" Nick said rhetorically.

The four then dug up a large hole and dragged the four bodies into it. They then re-dug the hole and made it look like what it was before.

"So what now?" Danny asked.

"Now we head back to the city, get some rest and come back here in a couple months." Nick replied.

"But just a couple days before, we should make sure they're out of the city, I don't want to get tangled up into a kafuffle like that." Judy said.

The four then started heading back into the van when Judy noticed Nick pausing.

"You alright there Nick?" Judy asked.

Nick stayed silent for a moment and sighed while looking at the sky.

"Do you really think this will work?" He asked.

Judy sighed. "Nick…. I know this has been pretty rough all this time, but there can't be any room for doubt, not while there's still lives on the line here." Nick then layed his eyes on the ground. "Nick everything that we've done up to this point, I don't want it to be for nothing. So, I stay positive. I just…. Try to look for the light in a dark tunnel. Just have enough faith in this that this really will work Nick, that's all I'm saying."

Nick nodded. "Alright, let's get on back to Zootopia."

The four then got back into the van and drove back home. Even Judy had her thoughts on wondering what would happen if they were found out, but she still tried to put those thoughts to the side and focus on it working.

* * *

August 14th, 2016

It had been a surprisingly fast two months for the four mammals. Judy, Nick and Clawhauser continued to do their normal routines at the ZPD, but things were always uneven whenever Judy and Nick chatted with Clawhauser. Danny and Finnick also continued with their typical lives and work, but never saw much from the other three during that time.

The four of them knew it was the day to show Z the bodies, but still couldn't help but feel nervous all day about it. Mostly because they couldn't help but feel like it wouldn't work. It was the evening time when Judy got the call from Z's group.

"Hello again." Judy said, as she answered the phone.

" _It's time Miss Hopps_." The voice on the phone said. _"Meet us back at the location on the map we gave you, and we will go back to the warehouse to discuss the situation there, and grab the hoodie and collar just in case."_ After saying that last sentence, the voice on the phone immediately hung up.

Judy put her phone down, went into her closet, got the hoodie, went into her drawer and grabbed the collar and headed to the car. Eventually, the other four got to the car as well with Biggy sitting in the front.

"So where's the fifth?" Biggy asked.

"Oh uh…. W-we thought it would be better to chat with Z about that afterwards." Judy said.

"Why, he's not ratting on us is he?"

"Oh no, no, no, nothing like that." Nick said coming in. "Clawhauser just had some family issues he needed to take care of this late afternoon, so he asked us to take care of this for him while he's doing that.

Biggy did seem to find it a little sketchy, but he didn't care enough to push the conversation anymore.

"Whatever." Biggy said. "Z's waiting for us at the warehouse as it is, so we don't have time to wait for this chubby donut eater anyways."

Biggy then started the car and drove to the warehouse. Most of the ride stayed silent, except for the little 'how have you been' or 'how are you feeling.' Twenty minutes later, they reached the warehouse where a few more vans were already parked outside. They then got out of the van and headed into the trapdoor, and into the equipment room where Z was waiting. Along with seeing the rest of the mammals in the room, one of them they happened to see was Chip.

"There you all are, I was beginning to worry you would never show up." Z said. "But correct me if I'm wrong, we seem to be short one mammal here."

"Yea um, Clawhauser was not able to make it Z, he just had a family emergency he had to deal with that's all." Judy explained.

"Family emergency huh?" Z said addressing. "Interesting. Alright, well let's get down to business. We have been keeping an eye on the news the entire two months to hear anything about the passing of even just _one_ of these four mammals, but not a single peep has been said."

"Don't worry Z, we took care of em." Danny said. "It's only been a couple days since we did it, but we did do it and buried them somewhere around an hour out of Zootopia."

"Oh, well marvelous then, just marvelous." Z said. "So if we were to go to this certain spot, would we find the four bodies, say right now?"

"Of course." Finnick said.

Z stared at them suspiciously. "Well then let's go take a look shall we?"

"Y-you mean to the burial site?" Nick asked.

"Yes, is that a problem Mr. Wilde?"

"N-no, no. Of course, if that's what it takes to prove it to you then sure."

"Well then off we go."

* * *

All the mammals got into the vans and started driving to the spot. The four vans stopped by the dirt road an hour out of Zootopia where the bodies were supposed to be. As Judy told Z where they buried them, eight of his mammals' grabbed shovels from the vans and started digging. Only five minutes later were they able to reach fur.

"Well, well, what do we have here…." Z said, as he was examining the bodies. "Let's see, we got the panda, the antelope, the goat and the fox. That was all of them right Joe?"

"Yep." The hippo replied.

The four had all their bones shivering, as they were worried whether Z would take the bait or not. Most of them were fidgeting, but tried to stay calm knowing that they should act too suspicious around Z.

"I can't believe it." Z said closing his eyes.

The four weren't positive about what that meant, but the butterflies in their stomachs started to flap their wings pretty hard now.

"C-can't believe what?" Judy asked, hesitating.

Z then stood up after examining the bodies and glared at Judy, Nick, Danny, and Finnick. All four of them starting panting under their breaths after Z gave them that look. They all thought the plan really didn't work, that their lives really were going to end with their bodies going into this very hole as well until Z spoke once more.

"You four really did do it."

The four then exhaled silently, but were filled with relief throughout their entire bodies.

"You see, we told you so." Finnick said.

Z chuckled. "Yea I suppose you're right, but I never even expected good mammals like yourselves to have done this crime. I suppose I underestimated you all."

"Well it's not like we _wanted_ to." Judy said.

Z's grin disappeared. "Alright, I can officially say now that our business with you four is finished. We'll drive you back to Zootopia and you won't ever have to hear from us again, no matter how urgent. But be aware, if one of you five step out of line again like back at the cheesecake store, we're going to have some serious problems then."

The four then nodded to Z's speech. "We understand one hundred percent Z, no questions asked we get it." Danny said.

Z then nodded. "Alright, Biggy you drive them to Zootopia back to their homes, apartments, whatever. As for the rest of you, head back to Zootopia as well, but stay on the schedules you're given for tonight, but I want you all to stay for a moment because we need to talk about something. But don't worry, it doesn't involve you four. Biggy you can drive them back, but everyone else stay."

"Sure thing boss." Biggy replied.

Finnick, Judy, Nick and Danny then went back into the van as Biggy got into the front and started driving. When the van was out of sight, Z continued to speak.

"Family emergency my tail." He said deeply. "I told them all _four_ of them were off the hook but that cheetah, not by a mile. Listen boys, that chubby little cheetah is already causing enough problems as it is. If my assumption is correct that he didn't want to take part of this and the only way to be serious enough is threatening to go to the police, this could jeopardize everything."

All the mammals looked at each other with concerned faces.

"Donnie, Sam, I want you two to follow that cheetah and the moment he is alone, take care of him. I don't think the threats are going to work on this guy anymore, so its best if we silence him himself. You guys agree?"

Most of the mammals nodded their head. The other mammals still weren't sure if this was the right choice, but majority rules and there was nothing they could do.

"Alright, I'm sure we all know what we're supposed to be doing right now, so let's go back."

* * *

The evening then came around in the city of Zootopia. Clawhauser went out for an evening walk to try and cool his mind since he knew today was the day. He sat down on a bench by the park and called Judy to know about how the events turned out. Luckily she picked up.

" _Hey Clawhauser."_ Judy said.

"Hey Judy." Clawhauser replied. "So what happened, did you do the job, did he go for it?"

 _"_ _Yes he did. You don't need to worry about it anymore, we're off the hook."_

Clawhauser sighed with relief. "Alright then. I guess I'll see you at work tomorrow."

" _Yep_."

Clawhauser then hung up the phone, smiled and exhaled once more, knowing that this was all over. But just then, his phone started ringing once more. When he looked at the number, it was unknown one to him. But he thought someone calling his phone right after he phoned Judy couldn't be just a coincidence, so he answered the phone.

"Uh, hello?"

There was no reply, all he could hear was panting on the other end.

"Who is this, are you sure you have right number?"

 ** _"_** ** _Watch out."_** The voice finally spoke.

Clawhauser's entire body froze after hearing those words.

 ** _"_** ** _Two will be coming to tie up loose ends, so you might want to find somewhere safe."_**

And just like that, the voice hung up.

"Wait a minute whose coming, hello? Hello!"

Clawhauser got horrified after that call. He look in every direction, but there was not a mammal in sight. He got up and knew the safest place to go to now would be the ZPD, so he started walking out of the park. He walked silently so he could be able to hear anyone that may be behind him.

But as he was walking, he heard a dim sound of two footsteps. He looked behind him and saw two mammals, a tiger and an armadillo walking on the same path. Clawhauser started getting nervous so he started walking faster. But as he was walking faster, the other two mammals did as well. That's when Clawhauser got a sick feeling in his stomach.

He then looked behind him once more, only to see the two mammals pull something from behind their backs. Immediately, Clawhauser took off running back into the park.

"BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!"

Clawhauser got shot in the arm, but continued running as fast as he could no matter how many more shots he heard. He eventually couldn't continue to run and ducked behind a large tree without looking back.

"If you come out, I promise it'll be quick!" The tiger yelled out.

"Do you really think he's going to fall for that?" The armadillo asked.

"Hmm, probably not."

Clawhauser knew there was no other way, but he still didn't want to give up. Not when he still had things to lose that were close to him.

The armadillo and tiger got closer and closer to the tree. The tiger took the left and the armadillo took the right. The two then went on the other side of the tree.

"Gotcha!" The tiger shouted. "Wait, what?"

There was nothing behind the tree.

The armadillo shook his head turning around. "Are you sure he went this way Sam?"

"I swear Donnie, I saw him take cover here!" Sam replied.

" _Snap"_

"Hm?" Donnie said.

He heard the snap come from right above him. He gasped as he saw Clawhauser on top on top of the tree and was about to point the gun at him, but Clawhauser dropped down from the tree and stomped right on the armadillo.

Sam turned around about to shoot Clawhauser, but Clawhauser picked up Donnie and his gun.

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

But the tiger could only shoot at Donnie as he was used as a shield by Clawhauser, but a bullet still hit him once more in the leg. Clawhauser returned fire.

"BANG!"

Clawhauser shot the tiger in the shoulder dropping him to the ground.

"Damn it!" The tiger yelled.

When he looked back up, the cheetah was nowhere to be in sight.

"AARRRGH….." The tiger said getting up from his wound on his shoulder. " _Now_ where the hell did he go?"

He checked to see if Donnie was okay, but knew right away he was gone. He continued to look around the park to find Clawhauser, but still nothing. Only twenty seconds later, he heard a faint sound from behind one of the trees. Sam pointed his gun up as he started walking slowly to the tree and made sure the cheetah wasn't on top of it this time. When he made it to the tree, he instantly looked on the other side, but nothing was there once again.

"Damn it." Sam said angered. "Where are you hiding you fat lump..."

As Sam was still looking around, he heard a click right behind him and turned around.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!"

The tiger dropped his gun and fell to the ground.

Clawhauser then dropped the gun as it was out of ammo, and leaped towards the tiger as he was still injured. The tiger's eyes were closed. Clawhauser checked for a pulse on him, but nothing was felt.

He fell to his knees and started panting.

 _'_ _I just took the lives of two mammals…._ 'Clawhauser realized, as he thought to himself.

He continued panting and put his paws on his head as his eyes widened. All he could think about doing now was screaming to the top of his lungs.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 11, Unable To Be Saved**


	12. Unable To Be Saved

**Chapter 11:** **Unable To Be Saved**

August 15th, 2016

"Ok so truck one will have semi-automatics, truck two will be pistols, and three will snipers." Z said, as he was ordering his mammals to ship out the weapons in the cheesecake store to the cheesecake trucks. "Next week, I suggest we do all automatics since our buyers would tend to-"

"Z, Z sir!" A leopard called out.

Z sighed. "What, what is it that's so important Johnny, can't you see I'm trying to sort everything before we ship these weapons out?"

"Sir, Donnie and Sam are dead." Johnny replied.

Z dropped his clipboard, as he was stunned after hearing those words.

"I beg your pardon?" He said silently.

"Here, come and check out the news."

Z went into his office and turned on the television to the news channel.

 _"In other news, a massive shootout that was told to have happened last night has left two mammals dead and another wounded in the pines valley park. The wounded mammal who is now identified as Benjamin Clawhauser, a dispatch officer from the Zootopia Police Department is currently being treated at the Zootopia general hospital. Earlier today, the chief of police made a news conference about the shooting."_

 _"We are still unsure about the cause of the events that took place, but we do know the armadillo and the tiger were the assailants of this shootout. Officer Clawhauser did what he did to defend himself, so he will not be found guilty of these crimes as it is. But we were surprised from this case right when we heard the call earlier this morning about the discovery, since weapons such as guns are to be only used by the ZPD in extreme cases. So yes, it does seem unusual to find them in this case. We will update you once more when we have finished questioning with officer Clawhauser, but until then no more questions."_

 _"Citizens are asked to come forward if they have any knowledge of what may have caused this event."_

Z turned off the TV and walked to his desk where he stood there for a few moments without saying a word.

"S-sir?" Johnny asked.

Z still stayed quiet. He then picked up his lamp and threw it across the room, and swept everything off of his shelves.

"GOD DAMN IT!" Z shouted.

Johnny knew things were starting to get a little too tense in the office. "I'm just gonna….. give you some space since there's no need for me to sta-"

"WAIT." Z said deeply.

"W-what do you need Z?"

"I have a job for you Johnny."

Johnny got concerned as to what the job would be. "You're not going to make me kill all five of those mammals are you?"

"No…." Z replied. "I have a better idea. I want you to find a mammal from off the streets that can deliver a message to the ZPD."

"What for?"

"Just to tell them some addresses, I want to prepare something, no matter how long it takes. I'm gonna show those five little pests just what happens when they think they can mess with my crew."

* * *

"And you're sure they got out of the city right?" Judy asked, as she was talking to Nick on the phone in her apartment.

 _"Well, that's what Amber said when I phoned her a few days ago from one of the booths."_

"Where did she say she and the other three were going?"

 _"Well actually, she said all four of them would be parting ways after sorting everything out and being given new identities and all that. All I know is that Amber said she would be going out somewhere cold like around the Swifts Mountains to lay low for a while before she would go somewhere warm again."_

"I know this probably won't happen, but say if Z were to one day see through our trick, you don't think it's possible he would be able to track them down do you?"

 _"Hmm, that's a tough one to call carrots. Every criminal like Z would probably have their own method of searching for another mammal, even if they're long gone from them so I can't tell."_

"Yea it's just, what if they figured out who gave them the fake identities and would be able to track them down with just that or-"

 _"Oh no…"_ Nick interrupted, as he was watching the news. _"Judy, you need to turn on the news right now."_

Judy started feeling uneasy once more. "Why, what happened Nick?"

 _"Just do it!"_ Nick shouted.

"Okay, okay, hold on."

Judy turned on her television she finally and conveniently bought for herself just last month. She then heard the story about the incident at the park and how two mammals were killed and Clawhauser having been injured at the scene it took place.

"Sweet cheese and crackers…." She whispered. "Nick, I think we should talk mammal to mammals about this one."

" _Sure thing, where do you want to meet?"_

"I think I'll just head to your place, my place isn't very soundproof with these walls.

 _"Well I guess that means I'll be pouring two cups of coffee this morning."_

* * *

He couldn't feel anything, not even the pain that was going through his arm and leg after being shot. He just laid there, emotionless. He was still shell shocked from the events that happened at the park. Nothing but the thoughts of death were flowing through his mind right now.

The door opened as he saw the doctor and officer Mchorn coming in.

"Good afternoon officer Clawhauser, how have you been feeling?" The Doctor said. "I'm Doctor Neil Moosejaw and I will be treating you until you have recovered. I'm sure you are aware of who officer Mchorn is by now correct?"

Clawhauser stayed silent. Dr Neil and Mchorn became concerned.

"I think I should give you two a moment." Dr. Neil said.

"Thank you Dr. Neil." Mchorn replied.

Neil closed the door behind him as Mchorn pulled up a chair in front of where Clawhauser was laying.

"So… how you holding up Ben?" Mchorn asked.

Clawhauser stayed silent.

"Look, I know what you must be going through right now, but you should know nothing will be put on against you. We knew straight away it was all just to protect yourself. But the thing is, we're still puzzled about why this even happened in the first place. Is it possible you might have ticked someone off or had an old enemy in the past?"

Clawhauser continued to stay silent.

"It's just crazy to believe two mammals would suddenly show up out of nowhere in a typical park and start shooting up the place with actual guns! If you can just tell us even the slightest memory of something that might have led up to this, we could figure it out."

Clawhauser turned his head to look out the window. "Get out." He finally spoke.

"What?" Mchorn said confused. "Come on Clawhauser, you can't even tell us just the slightest piece o-"

"I said get out." Clawhauser interrupted.

Mchorn sighed and nodded. "Okay, I get it. You probably just need a bit more time to relax, we can talk later."

Mchorn left the room closing the door and made his way back to the lobby.

"So, did you get any information from him?" Chief Bogo asked.

"Nope, he still seems to be spaced out at the moment." Mchorn replied.

Bogo opened one of his slots for his radio. "Officer Higgins come in."

" _Higgins here,_ _what do you need sir?"_

"If what I've heard is true about Clawhuaser receiving a phone call just before the shooting took place, I want you to look into that number and see where it originated."

" _Copy that sir, I'll get on it right away."_

"It's just too much of a coincidence." Bogo said. "Clawhauser receives a call from an unknown mammal and not even three minutes later does two mammals come into the park to try and kill him."

* * *

"So what do you thinks going to happen now?" Nick asked. As he and Judy were talking to each other at his apartment."

"I-I don't know Nick. Worst case scenario is him confessing to the ZPD."

"Oh no."

"But that's not the problem right now Nick!" Judy shouted. "Z probably knows about what happened to his mammals by now and just imagine what he will do by going from a death threat and an innocent killed all because of suspicions on bags, to two of his own dying that one of us five was responsible for."

"But he specifically said we were finished with him and had nothing to worry about anymore. Now he sends two assassins on Clawhauser, like why in hell would he do that?"

"Something tells me he didn't buy our family emergency Clawhauser had to go to story.

"Yea, no kidding." Nick said. "So what's Z's move now, if there's one thing he will be doing, it's retaliating."

"He may possibly try to do it again. He probably thinks he should get to Clawhauser before he opens his mouth to the ZPD."

"This is just such a mess now. How did we go from being completely off the chains to going back into the snake pit?"

"Hey, I'm still trying to figure that out as well Nick. Did you text Danny and Finnick about the incident as well?"

"Yea."

"What'd they say?"

"Well let's just saying their asking the same things as us right now."

"Okay, well before we do anything else, I want to try and talk to Clawhauser about what happened. Maybe he can clear a thing or two up for us."

"Yea, _if_ he wants to talk to us."

"Well we should at least try Nick. Get your uniform on and let's go."

By now, Nick couldn't tell who really won the bet between him and Finnick.

" _Was this plan really a good one?"_ He thought to himself.

* * *

By the time they got to the Zootopia General hospital, there was already a crowd of police officers from the ZPD there hoping Clawhauser would still be okay by the end of the day. Turns out there was a lineup of mammals waiting to talk to Clawhauser, but mostly relatives and fellow officers?

"Oh good afternoon officers Wilde and Hopps, I'm guessing you heard about the news as well?" Chief Bogo asked as he was walking by.

"Yea it's, it's crazy to hear about something like this happening. We just figured we may as well say hi while we're on lunch break."

"Well that is very kind of you two. But just make sure you go back on afterwards."

"Will do sir." Nick said.

Eventually, Nick and Judy were the last ones up to talk with him. After the last visitor, they then went into the room and closed the door.

"Well if it isn't the mammals that nearly got me killed yesterday, oh how this brings so much joy to my heart." Clawhauser said sarcastically.

"Can anyone hear us from outside Judy?" Nick asked.

"No, I think we're all clear." Judy replied.

"Ok listen Clawhauser, you just need to hear us out." Nick said. "We just need to know, what exactly was all that yesterday, was it even Z's group?"

"You tell me Nick, because obviously whatever you said to Z the other day didn't exactly give all _five_ of us immunity."

"Well then it must've been if Clawhauser's got no idea." Judy said. "Clawhauser, we tried to tell him that you did help us with that job, but you were unable to join us because you had a family emergency you had to attend."

"Well how could Z have not bought that?" Clawhauser asked.

"Well he said so himself from the start, it doesn't matter what we're in the middle of, once we get that call we immediately do what we're told." Judy explained. "He must've used that to see through what was really going on. That probably made him assume the worst such as you confessing to the ZPD about their business."

"Speaking of calls Clawhauser, we heard in the lineup you received a call right after you talked with Judy to confirm the plan went well." Nick explained. "Is that true?"

"Yea." He said silently.

"It couldn't have been any of us four since none of us ever heard anything about the ambush at the park before we left."

"What, you're telling me one of Z's guys told me about the danger that was coming, why would they do that if they knew it would jeopardize the business?" Clawhauser asked.

"I doubt all of them would agree with every single thing that comes out of Z's mouth Clawhauser." Nick said. "But you should consider yourself lucky you got that phone call, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here right now."

"Nick cut him some slack, he had to kill two mammals which is something nearly everyone would never dare to do in their entire _lifetime_." Judy stated. "We should just be glad he made it out."

"I know, I know." Nick said. "But still, we would literally need a miracle for Z to not do anything to us later. It's hard to tell what angle he will be looking at in this state."

"Hopefully not the worst one." Judy said.

"What would that even be?" Clawhauser asked.

"Probably silencing all five us and dumping our bodies in the same place we left those other bodies in to make it more convenient. That is, unless you can speak to his conscience and convince him to let our families find our bodies."

"That sure is specific." Judy said.

"Well, it would make sense though." Clawhauser said.

Judy growled. "Look it doesn't matter! Let's just hope it doesn't come to that, period. I mean who knows, maybe Z understands Clawhauser _had_ to do it and can only blame himself.

"I don't think so Judy, he doesn't seem to be that arrogant."

Judy wanted to try to say things that would make Nick and Clawhauser feel more positive, but the more she tried to, the more even she felt less positive herself.

"A-anyways, we should probably be heading back to the ZPD." Judy said. "We should see where that call originated from, we may be able to figure out who phoned Clawhauser before the ZPD can."

"Alright, sure." Nick said. "Just try and get well soon Clawhauser."

"It may take more than soon Nick." Clawhauser replied.

* * *

As they went into the ZPD, there were already a crowd of officers nearby the bullpen. Nick and Judy weren't quite sure why there were so many there since they've never seen so many officers crowded there before, so they assumed it must have been important.

"Hey Francine, what's with all the commotion at the bullpen?" Judy asked the elephant.

"What that?" Francine said pointing to the crowd. "Well, Chief Bogo said he would be doing a recap on some of the past cases including the one from just today. It's more of an update on the progress of them if you ask me, but you should probably come since he wanted any available officers to check it out."

"Well, we still have a few more minutes to spare so why not?" Judy said rhetorically.

Nick shrugged and followed Judy and Francine to the bullpen.

Most of the officers in the bullpen were chatting about the cases that happened. Judy and Nick felt like the minority in the group, not only because they were the only fox and rabbit in the room, but because they knew most of the answers with what the officers were questioning. Finally, Chief Bogo came from his office and walked into the room.

"Alright, alright, quiet down now please!" Bogo shouted. "Now then, I have called you all out because there seems to be some suspicious activity that has been happening in the city for the past couple months now."

Nick and Judy looked at each other with concerned faces, but tried to stay calm.

"First we have the Bucky-Oryx Antlerson case." Bogo continued. "Not only has this mammal gone missing, but not a single trace has been found of him from witnesses to evidence in and out of his apartment. This brings us to the eight mammals that went missing only a little more than a week later. Why is this similar you may ask? Because once more, not a single trace was found. But what's interesting about these eight mammals is they were not just all criminals, but a part of the same gang led by Lenard Jarvis, one of the mammals who also went missing."

Bogo hung up all the profiles on the board so the officers could take a look at them.

"It is possible they were involved in some sort of deal, but didn't go so well. What's more, we looked into the system for information about this gang and turns out, there are supposed to be twelve members in the group."

Bogo hung up the other four mammals pictures.

"This fox, antelope, panda and goat were the other four. Earlier today, I asked some officers to drive to their known locations to bring them here for questioning, but none of them have been seen yet today. We don't know if they only drove somewhere else and slept there for the night but if that isn't the case, it means someone wanted these four gone. Moving onto the park incident just yesterday."

Most of the officers in the room were more interested in this case currently than the ones they have already heard about.

"This case happened a whole two months after the report on the eight missing mammals. The supposed assassins in this case is tiger Samuel Roundtail, and armadillo Donnie Drimans. The main part in this investigation involves the weapons at the scene. Two USP pistols and at least seven magazines were found at the scene. We are still unsure how these two mammals were able to get a hold of the weapons, but we are under suspicion that they may be part of a bigger organization."

Some of the officers started whispering to each other about their thoughts, but Nick and Judy knew Bogo was right on the money.

"We also found on Clawhauser's phones an anonymous phone call that was apparently given to him only a few minutes before the shooting. We later found out from the phone database that the call originated from a phone booth at the Kiwi bar in the rainforest district. We asked the owner of the bar for the tape from last night, but apparently he said his tapes went missing earlier today."

Nick and Judy were surprised. " _Wow, Z was able to figure it out before Bogo?"_ Nick thought.

"We will be looking more into that matter throughout the next few days, but I must ask you all to stay on high alert while you're patrolling the city because if we're fearing for the worst here, more mammals will be in danger."

There was a long silence in the room as Bogo was still taking a look at the files.

"The reason for the attack on officer Clawhauser is still unknown. Some of our officers did try to question him about it at the hospital, but as of now he is still unable to give us a clear enough answer. Alright I think that sums it up for now, and don't forget if you haven't picked up your assignments for today, be sure to find them at the front desk."

All the officers exited the bullpen and went back to their normal work. Judy and Nick still felt uncomfortable after the meeting since they knew they were right in the middle of all that Bogo just discussed, but were unable to say it out loud.

* * *

Z sat in his office waiting patiently at his desk for a certain mammal to come and talk to him. Finally, the door to his office opened.

"Chip, there you are!" Z said energetically.

"Uh, you wanted to see me Z?" Chip asked.

"Yes, yes, of course! Now come and have a seat."

Chip took a seat in front of Z's desk as Z went to sit back down on his own chair.

"So, what's on your mind today Z?" Chip asked.

"Well, today's been a bit slow for me Chip." Z replied. "I heard about the news today saying that Donnie and Sam were killed by that fricking chubby cheetah they call Clawhauser."

"Oh no, what happened?"

"Well that's the thing Chip. You see, what caused it to happen was from some anonymous call that the cheetah was given just minutes before Donnie and Sam showed up. Apparently that mammal told him about the danger that was coming and since he was aware of it, he ended up being able to kill them both."

"Jeez, that's pretty unfortunate Z."

"Do you think I'm stupid Chip?" Z asked in a deep voice.

Chip started to sweat. "W-what are you talking about?" He chuckled.

"You seemed to be in a little bit of a rush when we came back from looking at the bodies yesterday."

"So?"

"And funny enough, a bit after you left Shane noticed one of the voice changing collars missing."

"What are you implying sir?"

"I'm saying it was you." Z replied. "You stole the voice changing collar from the equipment room, ran to the nearest phone booth as fast as you could, you probably stole the file of Clawhauser from us earlier, but put it back later to find his phone number, and you warned him about the attack that that got Donnie and Sam killed. We even went through the trouble of stealing the video tapes from that bar just clarify it was you."

Chip was speechless, he knew he had been caught. Now was the punishment he was afraid of.

"L-look Z, I-"

"ANDREW, BIGGY!" Z called out.

Andrew the bear and Biggy and came in and each grabbed an arm of Chip's.

"Please Z, I didn't mean for them to get killed I just didn't want anyone else to die!" Chip squealed.

"But because you made that call, two of my most valuable workers died from someone that was a problem to us from the start!"

"But you said so yourself that you didn't have to go to that measure right in front of me, only to find out you actually were behind my back the entire time!"

"Biggy, Andrew, take him to the cells, I don't want to hear anymore garbage coming out of this wolf's mouth." Z ordered. "The thing is Chip, when you're in my business you need to learn that some mammals are just unable to be saved."

Chip started to growl at Z.

"Alright get him out of here." Z ordered once more. "I'll figure out what to do with him later but right now, we got bigger fish to fry."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 12, Doing What's Necessary**


	13. Doing What's Necessary

**Chapter 12: Doing What's Necessary**

December 7th, 2018

He had waited patiently for the mammal at the bar with his hoodie up as he was sitting on the counter. He had been there for at least two hours as he drank a few bottles of beer while watching everything bad that has happened in Zootopia he knew he and his friends were responsible for being talked about on the television. Ever since the problems started for him more than two years ago, he prayed every day those problems would go away. But eventually, he came to realize prayers weren't enough. This time, he knew he had to do it himself.

Finally, the mammal he was waiting for showed up. He tapped the mammal on the shoulder and looked up at him while he was sitting at the bar table. He then pointed at the door signifying it was time to make the trade. The two then went out the door and into the alleyway behind the bar to chat.

 **"** **I hope you're worth it."** The mammal said. **_"_** **I checked out a few of the ZPD files back in the day and read an interesting file about you. They say you're one of the best around who can manufacture what I'm asking for."**

"And that I am Mr. pawpsicle guy." The mammal replied grinning.

 **"** **Well, do you have the stuff or what?"**

The mammal then threw the bag over to him. He then unzipped it to make sure it was there and that there were enough to use.

"Well, is it what you wanted _sir_?"

 **"** **Yea, at least enough."**

"Alright then where's my goodies?"

He then threw an envelope over to the mammal and caught it. He looked inside the envelope seeing the twenty thousand bucks he asked for.

"Good, very good." The mammal said. "Hey, what exactly do you plan on using those for anyways? I mean, with an amount like that being used by _'the mysterious five',_ it must mean something big."

 **"Actually, this is just a personal matter.** **It will mainly be meant for one mammal but it will most likely be more than that, at least that's what I'm hoping for. But this is the only way left for me to finish what I started, otherwise more mammals will continue to die because of** ** _him_** **. Oh and a little warning by the way, it would be best if you weren't near those big city central buildings for a few days."**

"Why?"

The hooded mammal picked up the bag in front of him and pointed at it.

"Oh. Wait hold on, are you saying you're actually going to…."

The mammal nodded. **"Yep. I am."**

* * *

September 17th, 2016

It had been over a month after the incident at the park with Clawhauser took place. Another missing mammal case was brought in once more. Simon Mavrick Clawchip, short for Chip. Judy, Nick, Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser were all shocked to hear about it since they knew he was a mammal working for Z.

"This is a little too cheesy." Judy said, as she and Nick were having their coffees at a café. "Chip was a part of Z's group, why on earth would he be the next one to go missing?"

"He must have done something really bad, or bad enough to tick Z off to the point where nobody would be seeing him for a while."

Just then, Judy had an interesting thought.

"What if Chip was the one who called Clawhauser that evening?" Judy said thinking about it. "maybe Z found out it was him and decided to take action on him."

It did make sense to Nick since it was something that would cause Z to do something to his own.

"Possibly." Nick replied. "It would explain the reason why he stole those video tapes that most likely caught the caller on camera. He probably wanted to be sure it was Chip who called Clawhauser."

Judy looked around to make sure no one was near to hear them.

She then leaned in closer. "Do you think he's… dead?" She asked.

Nick thought about it. "I don't know, it's hard to say. Even though Chip caused two of Z's crew members to die, he still was also a part of Z's crew. They could just be holding him somewhere, you never know."

"Well, we should just be positive in the meantime and hope it's just something like that then."

"But the real issue here is Z himself." Nick said sounding concerned.

"What do you mean?"

"Come on Judy, isn't it a _tad_ odd to you that it has been an entire month since the incident and he hasn't told us anything?" Nick asked. "Not even Clawhauser who is nearly fully recovered has heard anything from him yet."

"I can tell what angle you're looking at here, but it can also mean that maybe he doesn't care enough to continue with us, or maybe he only wants to punish Chip if it really was him that called Clawhauser since he was the main cause of what lead to two of Z's mammals dead anyways."

Nick stretched his face with his paws. "Aye, aye, aye, these murders after murders and missing mammals after missing mammals are really starting to get mixed into my head here."

"I know how that feels." Judy replied. "But just try not to think about it, we're basically through with our business with Z."

"Even if we are Judy, what is there to stop Z from causing more deaths later?"

Judy sipped some of her coffee. "Well that's not our problem Nick. If Z ends up getting caught, the ones catching him isn't going to be us. You know what he would do by now if we ratted on him. you nor I would probably not take the chance in that happening to our friends and family."

"So then what do we do just, let him continue to do his quote ' _work_ ' and extend the amount of graves in in that desert-"

"You said so yourself Nick, we don't have a choice in the matter. That is of course unless you want the people close to us to get put in like you just said, those graves in that desert."

"Judy stop it."

"No _you_ stop it Nick!" Judy shouted.

A couple heads turned to see what all the shouting for was, but Judy and Nick stayed silent and waited for those eyes to get off them. Eventually, they did.

"I don't know what you're thinking of how _I_ am thinking about this, but me, Danny, Clawhauser, and Finnick most likely hate it just as much as you do." Judy assured. "Do you think I want to ignore something like death? I've hated doing every single thing we've done since three months ago when this all started. But right now and throughout the course of that time, we've been doing what's necessary enough to continue to move forward. I'm the same as you Nick, every day now and most likely in the future I'll keep thinking to myself if all of this will ever even end."

Nick sighed, but stayed silent. After taking a few more sips from their coffee, Nick's radio started to have voices come out of it.

 _"_ _Officer Wolford to Officer Wilde, Officer Wolford to Officer Wilde please."_

Nick took the radio from his belt and started talking.

"Officer Wilde speaking, what's up?"

 _"_ _Wilde, we got some sort of squirrel over here at the ZPD saying he has something serious to tell us, but will only speak to you and Officer Hopps."_

Nick and Judy were confused. "What, why us?" Nick asked.

 _"_ _Who knows, maybe you two seem trustworthy enough I don't know." Wolford replied._

Nick and Judy eyeballed each other weirdly.

"Uh, ok. We'll be there as soon as we can Wolford."

 _"_ _Copy that."_

"A squirrel wanting to talk to the both of us?" Judy questioned. "The last time I even made contact with a squirrel was like five months ago when I was clothes shopping at a mall and the cashier was the squirrel."

"Same, I don't get into contact with many squirrels around the city." Nick said. "I may know everybody, but the only squirrels I know of are pretty simple nut crackers."

"I'm not really liking the sound of this then Nick."

"Judy, it's just asking a squirrel a few normal questions, how hard can that be?"

* * *

"Did you send those five mammals I asked for to the cells as well?" Z asked, as he was in his office chatting with some of his crew.

"Yep, all set and locked up sir." The mammal replied. "The good news is, nobody saw us so things never had to go south at any point."

"Well that's good to hear." Z said. "After all, we've been preparing this for about a month now so it should be worth it in the end. By the way Harvey, Did you also bring Chip over here like I asked you too?"

"Yea, he's right downstairs if you want to speak with him now." Harvey replied.

"I would love to do that, thanks Harvey."

Harvey went up from his seat and walked out of the office to go get Chip. When he brought him in, Z saw him in chains from his hands to his legs as he looked dirty and with unsmoothed fur.

"Strap him onto the chair and wait outside by the door Harvey, I want to have a mammal to mammal chat with good old Chip here." Z ordered.

"Yes sir." Harvey replied.

Harvey chained him to the chair with both legs and arms and walked outside closing the door.

"Yeesh, by how you're looking right now, I'm sure you've had better days." Z said.

"What the hell do you want now Z?" Chip said, with his voice sounding gravely.

"You know, I never wanted you to end up like this." Z said disappointed. "But you knew exactly with clear-cut instructions the things that would happen to you if you ever crossed me while working in this business, and this is one of those situations."

"I don't care about your sympathy speech Z now just tell me what the hell you want." Chip said angered.

"Such a poor sport." Z said shaking his head. "Well once again, I've been wondering about something and how you knew it."

Chip was puzzled. "But I already told you the story Z, what more do you want from that?"

"Well back with those four mammals that needed to be killed, it's true." Z admitted. "I in fact lied to you about it by saying we weren't going to do anything bad to them, but it was only because I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable with what we were really going to do to them."

"So what's your point, are you just trying to get a load off your chest here or something?"

"What I'm getting at here is how exactly did you figure out I was lying to you?"

Chip then realized his mistake. He tried to look for the right words to say to Z, but it was hard for him since he was in a tight situation once more.

"I….. may have overheard it when I exited the door after you and I had that conversation about Lenny's group from that night."

Z nodded. "Interesting, interesting…. Now tell me how you really found out about it."

Chip rolled his eyes in frustration. He knew if he slipped up, Z would for sure go after Nick, Danny, Judy, Clawhauser and Finnick once more.

"My god Z, why do you always have to complicate things?" Chip asked. "I just told you how I found out about it, the end."

Z moved in a little closer. "You know Chip, I may not be a mind reader but I do have common sense. If you overheard me with my little whispering that night you would have come right back into the room to confront me about it. No mammal would just confront me more than two months later, unless they may have overheard it from another source after our meeting…."

Chip started to sweat. "What, what makes you assume that?"

"Because it's the only other possibility Chip, even you yourself know it."

Chip shook his head as he was crossing his arms. "Forget it, just take me back to that damn cell already."

"Yea, about that…."

"What?"

"The thing is Chip, if you don't tell me what I _need_ to know, you won't be going back to your prison. You will be going somewhere else."

"Somewhere else?" He asked.

"Let's just say the mammals in those graves at the Kafya desert may end up having a new friend over there if you don't tell me."

It was at that moment, when fear came into Chip's body.

"I'm sure it would be just awful for a sick mother and caring sister to never see you again wouldn't it? Especially after the loss of your father already. Then again, what I just said can also mean two things."

Once again Chip was still unsure which side to take, especially after hearing him threatening his family.

"Nothing still?" Z said sighing. "Very well then, I guess I'll just have to be doing what's necessary then. BIGGY, HARVEY!"

Biggy and Harvey entered the room and walked up to Chip. They then unlocked the chains and grabbed arms dragging him off of his chair. As they were getting close to the door, Chip spoke up.

"Wait, wait, WAIT!" He shouted.

Z put his paw up, which gave Biggy and Harvey the signal to stop.

Chip sighed, feeling saddened. "There was a mammal who did inform me about it a week after you told me you wouldn't."

Z grinned. "Sit him back down over here boys." He ordered.

Biggy and Harvey shoved him back onto the seat he was sitting on from before.

Z leaned on his chair. "And who might be this mammal you speak of Chip?" Z asked.

"Judy Hopps." He answered.

Z's eyes widened all the way. " _Judy Hopps, how in the hell is that even possible?!"_ He thought.

"Wait a second Judy Hopps, as in the police officer we brought in along with her four other friends Judy Hopps?" Z asked.

"Yes." Chip replied. "If you're wondering how she found out about who I really was, that was something even I wasn't sure about. It's possible she could have thought of a similar file to me and found my name in it, but I can't be too sure about it. She was also with that Finnick guy and the wolf Danny when she came to talk to me about it."

Z had a puzzled face on him. "What in the world was Judy Hopps wanting from you?"

"Well…." Chip said trying to think about how he could explain it. "I'm sure you remember those four mammals we had to deal with last month right?"

"The ones in that hole?"

"Well, sort of."

"What about them?"

Chip exhaled deeply. "They're not dead."

* * *

Judy and Nick entered the ZPD as they were approaching Officer Wolford.

"Hey Wolford!" Nick said calling out to him.

"Oh, you're here." Wolford said. "The Squirrel's in questioning room number four if you two are ready to chat with him, I'll be watching the security camera.

"Okay, got it." Nick answered.

Nick and Judy then headed over to questioning room number four to talk to the squirrel. As they opened the door, their eyelids nearly closed with non-impression as they found the squirrel snoring with his feet up on the table. But the sound of the door closing woke him right up, immediately putting his feet back down.

"So Mr. Chopden right?" Nick asked the squirrel. "I'm Officer Wilde and this is Officer Hopps, but I'm sure you know that by now."

"Yes, that is correct." Chopden replied.

"I hear from one of our officers you came to the ZPD to give us some information about something." Nick explained.

"And apparently you stated you would only say it to us." Judy said chipping in.

"Well that's mainly because it's for you two in particular Officer Hopps." Chopden answered.

Nick leaned back on his chair. "Well lay it on us then."

"This is actually just a message for you two that someone offered me to say to you." Chopden said.

Judy and Nick weren't sure what that meant.

"I-I'm sorry, did you say a message for us?" Judy asked.

"Yes." Chopden replied. "Forty-two Pawthorne lane, twenty-three Longneck drive, four one one three tail boulevard, two zero six seven malaview street, and eighty-one Longears road in Bunnyburrow."

Both Nick and Judy's eyes widened after hearing those addresses come up.

Wolford in the meantime after hearing one of those addresses, ran out of the door as quickly as possible to Chief Bogo's office.

"Knock, knock, knock." Went Bogo's door as Wolford was knocking on it repeatedly.

"Who is it?" Bogo called out.

"It's Wolford, I need you to come take a look at a questioning room we're doing currently."

"Wolford, I've got a lot of cases I need to be focusing on right now so this can wait."

"No it can't sir!" Wolford shouted. "Please, just a few minutes of your time."

Bogo sighed. He put his pencil down, stood up and opened the door.

"This better be important Wolford." Bogo said angered.

The two mammals then walked to the security room where the questioning room with Judy, Nick and Mr. Chopden was still being taken place.

"U-um Mr. Chopden, how exactly did you come across these addresses?" Judy asked.

"Some hooded guy payed me a couple thousand last month to deliver this message to the ZPD, specifically to you two."

"What exactly did he look like?" Nick asked. "Could you at least tell us what species he was or what street this was on?"

"I believe this was in some sort of alleyway on Coroner Street during night time. Judging by the height and the kind of tail he has, I think he was a leopard of some kind."

Nick noted everything the squirrel said on his clipboard with a lined piece of paper on it. But he still knew in his mind something wasn't right after hearing an address that was familiar to him.

"Alright Mr. Chopden, me and Officer Hopps are going to step out for a moment, we'll be back soon." Nick said, as he and Judy were standing up and walking out the door.

They then met up with Chief Bogo and Wolford in the security cameras room.

"What was all that about?" Bogo asked the three.

"I don't know how this supposed hooded guy Chopden mentioned knows about all this, but one of the addresses he said, eighty-one Longears road is my parents' house." Judy said shivering.

"Twenty-three Longneck drive is where mine live!" Wolford shouted.

"Four one one three Tail Boulevard is where my mother lives." Nick said silently.

"How and why would someone give us the addresses to our parents' estates?" Wolford asked.

"Wilde give me your notes, I'm going to go see who the other addresses belong to." Bogo ordered.

Nick handed him the slip of paper and went out the room.

"I'm gonna go call them just in case." Judy said. "You guys should probably do the same, I mean you never know what it could be."

The three then went out of the room, took out their phones and started dialing the numbers to their parents' estates.

 _"_ _Hello?"_ Said the voice on Judy's phone.

"Mom?" Judy said. "Hey, it's Judy."

 _"_ _Oh hi Judy! How's work today going?"_

"It's, going alright. How are things around the house?"

 _"_ _Oh you know, same as always."_

"What's dad doing right now?"

 _"_ _Well, he said he was going to go to the market to find some spices for dinner tonight, but weirdly that was about six hours ago."_

" _Six_ hours ago?"

 _"_ _Weird isn't it? I never knew your father was that into spices."_

"Have you tried calling him?"

 _"_ _I've tried three times now and he still isn't picking up. I'm surprised he doesn't know his way back by now."_

Judy had a sick feeling in her stomach.

"Uh, I better call you back mom."

 _"_ _Oh, ok then talk to you later sweetie!"_

Judy then hung up the phone and went over to Nick and Wolford. But as she approached them, worried faces were on both of them as well.

"So, anything out of the ordinary with your calls?" Judy asked.

"My dad did pick up at least." Wolford said. "But he said my mom hasn't been in the house since he woke up."

Judy's sick feeling in her stomach grew even bigger.

"My mom's not picking up." Nick said panicking.

"This can't be just a coincidence!" Wolford called out.

"I'm gonna go see if Bogo found out about the other two addresses yet." Judy said.

Judy went up to his office and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Bogo said.

Judy opened the door and took a seat in front of Bogo's desk.

"So did you find out the other two addresses?" She asked.

"Yes I have." He replied. "Two zero six seven Malaview street belongs to a female cheetah, Ellie Janeen Clawhauser."

"Wait, as in a relative of Officer Clawhauser?"

"I'm afraid so." Bogo said. "The final one, forty-two Pawthorne Lane belongs to a female fennec, Maria Masto."

 _"_ _Maria Masto?_ " Judy thought _. "I've never heard that name before."_

"Does this Maria Masto have and close relatives?" Judy asked.

Bogo searched the database for any close relatives related to Maria Masto.

"She has, or should I say had a husband but he died in a car pile-up back in the eighty's." Bogo said, as he was scanning through the profile. "She's got one son, Finnick Masto."

" _Oh my god."_ Judy thought. _"All the addresses, they're related to all five of us! It has to be Z's doing, it has too. It can't just be a coincidence one relative from each of our families suddenly just goes missing. But why in hell would he be doing this?!"_

"Have you tried calling those two addresses?" Judy asked.

"I have, but no one's picking up." He replied.

Judy was now confident it was Z who was behind this, but that only made her have an even sicker feeling in her stomach. She assumed if she didn't act quickly, she may never see her father again.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 13, Yourselves Are To Blame**


	14. Yourselves Are To Blame

**Chapter 13: Yourselves Are To Blame**

"Who am I?" The voice said, after being asked that. "Pffft, I'm a nobody really. I guess I'm what I would consider to be just a pawn in a bigger and stronger game someone's playing. The only problem is that the certain someone didn't like a move I played recently. What's going on? I knew you'd ask that, that's what anyone new to this would ask, I speak for myself actually. Well let's see... Well just for the record, this isn't any of you mammals fault, but me and some of your relatives ended up making a big mistake and this is how we got to pay for it."

The mammal saw the rest of the mammals wake up after the drugs wore off of them. Most of them panicked, but the certain mammal tried to keep them all calm and tell them the whole situation.

"And that's pretty much it. What's my name?" The mammal asked. "I don't know if that will solve anything but it's Chip, at least that's what I nickname myself. Where are we? Hmm, I believe were in the sewers somewhere in the Canal district of Zootopia, but it's not like that matters anyways. Nobody can hear us from where we are other than the mammals already down here. the only problem is, those mammals are trying to keep us in here."

The other mammals started to panic more.

"Panic if you want guys, but there's no way out of this." Chip said deeply. "Now if I were you, I would just try and get some sleep for the day tomorrow since it's getting late Mr….."

The mammal Chip was talking to sighed. "Hopps." He said silently.

"Hopps, got it."

* * *

 _"_ _Today marks another tragic incident as five mammals Stuart Hopps, Maria Masto, Sherry Wolford, Sarah Wilde and Ellie Clawhauser all seemed to have gone missing at the exact time earlier today still for unknown reasons. The chief of police made another press conference to discuss the new case that has recently been announced. Here is what he had to say."_

 _"_ _Earlier today, a mammal whose name shall remain anonymous for the time being came into the ZPD to specifically talk to only two of our officers who once more, shall remain anonymous for the time being. In the interview they had with the mammal, he named five addresses that ironically are all the addresses to the estates of all five of the missing mammals. It is still unknown why this supposed attack has happened, but we ask the city to stay to cautious after past recent attacks over the course of these past three months. But we at the ZPD are going to strive through these matters until they are solved."_

 _"_ _The mammal that Chief Bogo speaks of is currently continuing to be questioned on suspicions of being a possible sus-"_

 _"_ I can't watch anymore of this." Judy said, as she turned off the TV in Danny's apartment.

"What in the hell does Z think he's doing?!" Finnick yelled.

"Well obviously he's doing this for a reason, he wouldn't want to do this just because he's bored." Nick said.

"Yea, no kidding." Finnick replied.

"Is he that ticked at us for getting two of his crew members killed?" Danny asked.

"You don't think he's going to kill me do you?" Clawhauser asked.

"If he's taken more than just from _your_ family Clawhauser, it probably isn't just you he's thinking about right now." Judy said.

"So then what do we do now, just let him screw with our heads?!" Danny shouted, as he was waving his arms around.

"What in the world is there to do that doesn't involve more danger down the road?" Finnick asked.

All five of them were frustrated as they knew the day had come when the people close to them became involved in the middle of the danger that has been happening.

"I'm going over to that cheesecake store." Judy said.

"What, are you crazy!?" Clawhauser shouted.

"Hey, it's as good of a place as any to start with so we at least know they're alive, and where they're being held."

"But don't you know what could happen if you try to do that?" Danny asked.

"It's already happening Danny, what's the difference." Judy replied.

Judy then stepped up from the couch and walked out the door.

"Do you think we should follow her?" Clawhauser asked.

"No, why don't we just give her a time limit?" Finnick said. "I mean, she probably won't want us to come with her anyways. Judging from how far the cheesecake store is to here, if she doesn't return within two hours, we'll have to go there armed."

* * *

As Judy approached the cheesecake store, she couldn't see anyone through the window. She opened the door with the bell on top ringing.

"I'll just be a second!" Said a voice in the back.

Judy still found it hard to believe that a place like the cheesecake store along with the owner of it would be under the control of a criminal organization.

 _"_ _The plain sight tactic sure isn't what Z has in mind, that's the truth."_ Judy thought.

As she was continuing to take a look around the cheesecake store, she saw a little mouse pop up in front of the cashier register.

"Heh heh, well, well, well, if it isn't the good old bunny cop herself, Judy Hopps." The mouse said giggling. "Oh what happiness this now brings into my life."

"Cut the cheese talk Jerry." Judy said in a serious tone, as she recognized the mouse from the night her, Danny, Clawhauser, Nick and Finnick were forced to be taken down into the storage room of the cheesecake store, which turned out to be a storage room for weapons.

Jerry put an eyebrow up. "You think you can simply talk to a little mouse like that, is that it?" He chuckled.

Judy sighed as she shook her head. "I don't have time for this right now, I just want to know where our family members are."

Jerry laughed. "I knew you would figure it out eventually, I just never knew it would be this fast."

"Do you at least know something, anything that you can be able to tell me about them?"

Jerry started to smile. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Judy was surprised. "Really, what?"

"But let me just tell you, Z's already aware of this."

Judy was confused. "Aware of what?"

"What we are doing right now, even at this very moment he knows."

Judy couldn't believe it. "What, that's impossible!" She said loudly. "How can he know about something without being here himself? What is he, psychic?"

"Because he knows more about mammals than anyone does after all these years in the business. if anybody would know that, it's me."

"Oh yea that reminds me, why would a criminal organization want to leave all their loot just lying there under a basement in a crummy cheesecake store?" She snapped back.

"Bleh, bleh, bleh, jeez you ask so many questions. Anyhow, you asked about your relatives' right?"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Yes, can you tell me where they are or not?"

"Well as I said before, Z already knows you're doing this. He assumed the first place you would go to in order to find more info about them would be here. After all, it is where we took you and you're four other pals last time."

"If that's true then did he tell you anything?"

"Oh of course he did. In fact he told me to give you a message."

"A-another message?"

Jerry walked to the cashiers and climbed up the counter to it. He then went over to the largest cashier, crawled under it and came out on the other side, but this time holding a slip of paper in his paws. He then went back over to Judy and handed the slip of paper to her.

"What's written on this?" Judy asked.

"Not even I know." Jerry replied. "Z just came in earlier today and gave me this paper, saying that one of you five would come eventually and when they did, I would give it to you. I wanted to stay out of whatever it was so I didn't question it, but it sure seems like it's your business."

"You think."

She then unfolded the letter and started reading.

 _Greetings to one or all of the five that has received the letter. If you are reading this, you most likely want to know about your missing relatives and their current condition. I am able to confirm with you, all of them are alive and well enough. However, that does not mean they will all stay safe, not forever at least. I did think about putting the past behind us a few days ago, I even thought about letting your relatives go today while they were still being kidnapped. But after having a talk with a certain mammal, I changed my mind._

 _I have always and to this day, warned you about what would happen if you crossed me, but I guess even the rabbit seems to have hearing troubles. That is why in one week from now at midnight, you five will be meeting with my mammals at the warehouse. From there, we will be driving to a certain location. I could tell you where, but that would be spoiling the surprise!_

 _That's all I wanted to say, once all you five have read this letter, burn it. We don't want any evidence left behind of course. And this time, I expect all five of you to show up. We don't want what happened last time to happen to one of you at certainty this time._

 _Z_

A thousand thoughts rushed through Judy's head. _"Where are our relatives being held, what did Z mean by them not being safe forever, what suddenly changed his mind of not letting them go, who was the mammal he was talking to, where will they be driving to in a week from now? This is going to be a long week._

Judy then left the cheesecake store and walked back to Danny's apartment to tell the other four about the letter. She then knocked on the door with Danny opening it.

"There you are, we were getting worried!" Danny said loudly.

"Sorry about that, but right now I have something I need to show you guys." Judy said.

Judy then took the letter out of her pocket and slapped it onto the kitchen table.

"What's this?" Nick asked.

"That damn Z knew one of us would go to the cheesecake store to ask about our relatives going missing." Judy replied. "So the owner of the store gave me this letter he wrote today."

The other four huddle around the letter to see what it said. After finishing reading the letter, they were just as confused as Judy.

"Okay, well at least we know now they're still alive." Clawhauser said.

"Yea but he said they won't be safe forever though, what does that mean?" Danny asked.

"I'm sure it's just another threat for making us continue to work with him." Nick replied.

"Why would he be taking us somewhere, can't we just have this supposed meeting at the warehouse?" Finnick asked.

"That means wherever it is, it's got to have some sort of significance to it." Nick said.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Judy said.

* * *

September 24th, 2016, one week later.

It was a very slow week for the five mammals. Neither the ZPD nor police in Bunnyburrow could put heads or tails on their disappearance and where they are. And all the while, Judy, Danny, Finnick, Clawhauser and Nick couldn't stop thinking about what happened to them, and what Z meant in his letter. But eventually the night came where their questions would be answered, whether they like it or not.

"Is everyone on their way Nick?" Judy asked, as she was talking on the phone with Nick.

 _"_ _As far as I know Judy."_ Nick replied.

"Alright, well I guess I'll see you at the warehouse. Just make sure cameras won't see you on the way."

Judy then put the hoodie she was given by Z on to make sure nobody, nor would the cameras recognize her while she was on the train to the warehouse in the rainforest district. She may have been the first one there but by the time it was midnight, all of them were there. Right when the clock struck midnight, a mammal came out of the trapdoor, it was Biggy.

"You five follow me, you're coming into my van." Biggy ordered.

None of them questioned about it since they knew they were told they would be going somewhere.

Throughout the drive was total silence. All five of them were nervous about what was to come. None of them were sure about where they were going with all the pitch blackness out the back windows, but they knew they were going outside the city. But as they were nearly approaching the destination, Nick noticed something.

"We're driving on a dirt road." Nick whispered.

"So what?" Danny whispered.

"So when was the last time we had to drive on a dirt road?" He replied.

It took a moment for the other four to this about it, until they realized it was when they drove on a dirt road to bury the four fake bodies.

"Why are we driving over there?" Finnick asked.

"I don't know, but something tells me it's not for a good reason." Nick whispered.

The van pulled up in front in front of about half a dozen other vans with the lights on, and with mammals standing in front and side of them.

"Alright, get out." Biggy ordered.

The five then exited the back of the van and went inside the circle of vans parked around them. There, they saw Z sitting on a chair cleaning something in his paw with a rag. He then looked up at them.

"Welcome." Z said as he stood up. "You know what I…. just, can't stop thinking about what's on my mind? Me giving a fair enough job to someone, but in the end they stiff me."

The five weren't sure what Z was talking about.

"What are you getting at Z?" Danny asked.

"You little buggers….." Z said furious. "That job we asked you five to take care of last month, you never did it. Y-you just found bodies from _our_ past murders." He chuckled.

All five of them were speechless. They didn't know what to say that wouldn't end up them getting shot in the head.

"I had to hear it from that furball Chip, but I'm even mad at myself about it." Z said. "I remembered when Danny mentioned that it had only been a few days since you five supposedly killed them when we went to examine the bodies that day. But when I looked at those bodies, the decaying on them looked like they've been dead for at least more than five months! And we didn't even meet each other that long ago! I actually did notice it at first, but I just thought I underestimated how long it'd take for a body to decay. But now I realize I didn't because after all, It's not like me to underestimate things very often."

 _"_ _We've been caught…."_ Judy thought. _"Now…. Now Z's going to-"_

"I'm guessing you all want to know about the status of your relatives' right?" Z questioned. "Don't you worry I'll get to that, but first I may as well explain to you four about this situation now."

"S-situation?" Nick asked silently.

"Yes." Z replied. "You see Nick whatever you five do no matter what the scenario is, I'll always be five steps ahead of it. You can try all you want to fool me, you can try all you want to save lives, but that is never going to work, especially for me. It seems to me, you five _really_ don't know what you're up against. But don't worry, because I'm about to show you."

Z lifted the rag from his paws and put it back in his pocket, which revealed he was holding a revolver. All five of the mammals gasped, worried he might shoot them.

"I wouldn't worry about this right now, that comes for later." Z said. "It's amazing isn't it, how a small object like this can put great race of fear into someone when pointed at them. I'd be lying if I said I haven't experienced that feeling, but it always feels great to be the one wielding it. Especially when pointing it right now."

Judy's entire body started to shake in fear with having a gun pointed at her and her friends.

"Lizzie, Peter, Johnny, Thomas, Joseph, each of you grab one of them and bring them over to where your standing." Z ordered. "It's easier to control one mammal than controlling a group of them."

Z's mammals did what they were told and each grabbed one of the five. Most of them went to extreme measures and kept guns pointed on them while they took them to their spot in the outer part of the circle. Z then went into the middle of the circle.

"Over the course of last week, we ended up doing the dirty work you were required to do. Eventually we were able to track down those four after figuring out who set them up with new identities since we knew they were reported missing as well, but still alive. And after that without question, we've killed them."

All of the five mammal's eyes widened. After all the hard work they went through to save them, they realized it was now all for nothing.

"Or should I say we've killed most of them." Z said. "We still haven't been able to track down that fox girl Amber yet, but it shouldn't be too much of a problem. She most likely heard about her friends disappearances and ditched wherever she was so the same wouldn't happen to her."

It was mostly Nick that was relieved she was still alive not just because she was also a fox, but because he knew how desperate she was to stay alive after having that talk with her behind that café.

"But enough about those four, it's time to focus on you five." Z said deeply. "Bring them out."

Z's mammals then opened the van doors. They saw all their relatives come out of the vans. Ellie Clawhauser, Maria Masto, Stu Hopps, Sherry Wolford, Sarah Wilde and-

"Chip?" Judy said, as she saw Chip coming out of the van beside her.

The six mammals all had their mouths ductaped, and their eyes blindfolded as they were shoved onto their knees in a line in front of Z.

"The thing is guys, you all lied to me about something that nearly costed my entire business, you made a gun trade go wrong that made me lose a customer, and you and Chip over there even killed or directly caused the deaths of two of my crew members. So now, you're going to have to pay the piper."

Z then opened the roll of bullets in his revolver, took out five of them leaving one in, spinned the case and put it back in.

"Say Nick." Z called out.

"What." Nick replied.

"Have you ever heard of a game called fox roulette (Russian roulette)?"

Nick was now terrified. _"No, don't tell me you're going to play it on…"_ He thought _._

"Yourselves are to blame for this you know." Z said. "If everything had gone according to plan, we wouldn't have to be doing this right now. But sadly it didn't for you five so…. I'm gonna blow the brains out of one you six."

All five of them gasped for air.

"No, no, no YOU CAN'T!" Judy yelled. "Z we get it, we learned our lesson, and we understand now what we can and can't do! Just please, don't do this."

Z sighed. "I didn't want it to come to this Miss Hopps, but clearly you don't understand it enough. That's why I am doing this and like I said before, only yourselves are to blame. Maybe now you will truly know what happens when you cross me."

Judy started panting with all her might. "BUT Z-"

"One more sound from her, shoot her in the head and then we'll continue." Z ordered. "And that also counts for the rest of you so if you will, don't try it. Alright, let's begin."

Z then walked behind the six mammals and pointed it at the first one.

"Now all of you have a one and six chance at being shot, but that still doesn't mean you won't be the odd mammal out."

"CLICK." Went the gun after he pulled the trigger.

"But lucky for you, you didn't." Z said smiling. "You know, most of you really do seem like good mammals honestly. It really is a shame that one of you has to go though, but your sacrifice will most definitely motivate these five with our business."

"CLICK."

"Going good so far." Z said, as he was moving down the line. "Now it's a one and four chance for you four mammals, while those two are off the hook for now. However, that doesn't mean we're finished with you all just yet."

"CLICK.

"You know, I never had a choice when I was threatened to do the same thing. And when I thought I did… my mother, my father, my sisters, they were all taken from me." Z paused for a moment. "And if that had to happen to me, then so will it happen. To. _You._ "

"BANG!"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 14, Happiness Is A Distant Memory**


	15. Happiness Is A Distant Memory

**Chapter 14: Happiness Is A Distant Memory**

She was now all alone, with nowhere, and no one to turn to. Every direction she thought of simply looking at, only the sense of death could be known that way for herself. She knew she was the last loose end he wanted to take care of. She already heard about the suspicious disappearances from her remaining friends on the news. The only place she could think about hiding that he wouldn't think about looking was back in Zootopia.

She ended up sneaking from truck to truck to make sure she wasn't seen all the way from the Swifts Mountains. After she was back in the city, she knew she needed a place to lay low. She wasn't sure who at first, but then she realized someone who may be able to help her. However, the information she needed about him or her was the hard part. When she first met with him, all she knew was that he was a fox as well from looking at his tail. but the voice was changed and he had a face hoodie on which made it hard to know who specifically.

She did sometimes recall some of his crew would hang out in an alleyway on Coroner street, so she knew it was as good of a place as any to start with. She made sure no one would recognize her by hiding her tail in her pants and wearing a hoodie. As she entered the street during night time, she did witness what seemed to be a bear and a goat chatting in an alleyway. She snuck behind a trash can near them to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"So hey, I'm heading over to the bar later with other mammals from our crew." The goat said. "They bought out the place tonight for crew members only, can you believe that Shane?"

"Well what's the occasion Dorothy?" Shane asked.

"I believe it's some sort of a memorial thing." Dorothy explained. "Most of them just find it hard to believe it's been a whole month since Donnie and Sam were killed by that chubby cheetah guy."

"Serves them right though." Shane said. "It just comes to show you can never underestimate someone based on their appearance or _supposed_ skills. They probably did and got themselves stomped on and shot."

"How did Z deal with that situation, did he silence the cheetah?"

"No, he went to more extreme measures than that."

"What did he do then?"

"You know about those five new missing mammal cases that came up on the news last week?"

"What about them?"

"Those mammals are the relatives of those five mammals we brought in a few months ago, including that cheetah." Shane answered. "And what's more, I hear tonight Z's going to take those five mammals along with Chip, and the five working for us to where they faked the bodies."

"Oh yea, I remember Z mentioning that during work." Dorothy realized. "But is it true though that they killed the four remaining mammals from Lenny's group?"

"They killed three of them, but that fox girl Amber is still out there somewhere." Shane explained. "That's why Z wants all of us to keep a close eye out for her just in case."

 _"_ _Well you're not doing a very good job at it, that's for sure."_ Amber thought.

* * *

"BANG!"

It was all too sudden. The voice of the gunshot that just went through her head right in front of him echoed throughout his entire body.

"So Sarah Wilde turned out to be the odd mammal out, what a shame." Z said.

Nick's entire thoughts and mind turned entirely blank as he fell to his knees.

"NOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO!" Nick screamed.

Judy, Clawhauser, Finnick and Danny couldn't believe this was happening right now. They couldn't even imagine the pain that just went throughout Nick's entire body currently. They were not even able to comprehend seeing the body of his mother lay still on the ground. Most of them even had tears coming out of their eyes.

"Now keep in mind you five, this may very well happen again to your relative." Z promised. "So do what I tell you to and do it right, or I will put another bullet in the remaining five in front of me."

There was anger in Nick's eyes, almost as if he wanted to turn them flaming red. He then stood back up.

"You worthless…. Little STRIPED-"

Before Nick could run to tackle Z to the ground, he was already tackled to the ground himself by the leopard Johnny.

"Tch, weak." Z said.

Nick never thought another day would come after the muzzle incident when he was just a kid, would he ever shed another tear. He never wanted anyone to ever get to him again after that, but today, Z succeeded in doing so. Eventually he gave in and laid on the ground bursting into tears.

"I didn't want it to come to this." Z said. "However, you ended up leaving me no choice but to do it."

"There is ALWAYS another choice Z!" Judy stammered.

"Think again Miss Hopps." Z retaliated. "Because the only choices you will ever have with me, are the choices that I give you and no one else, even yourself."

"So what's your plan here now _genius?"_ Finnick asked.

"It's real simple actually Mr. Masto." Z said. "You are going to continue working for me, most likely just some trades, thievery and such, but no matter what it is you will do it. And this time, _all_ of you will do it, no more silly family emergencies lies. I'm sure you're wonder what will happen if you don't. Well, let's just say we'll be doing another round of this, only this time the odds will be higher for them."

Danny couldn't even think of anything to say. He knew Z was crazy, but what just happened in front of him took crazy to a whole new level for him. And after witnessing something like this, he thought to himself, " _How the hell can we simply move on from what just happened?!"_

 _"_ Now get them all out of my sight, I've got other business matters to attend to." Z ordered, as he was walking back to his car.

Judy, Nick, Clawhauser, Finnick and Danny were all then forced to go back into the van while they watched their relatives get shoved back into the other vans as they drove away.

The drive back was more silent than a fly flying around, mainly because most of them weren't sure what to say that wouldn't make Nick feel worse than he is right now. He had nothing to say or mention either, he just sat there with his paws on his face with not even a tear coming out of him. Judy knew he was falling into the despair pit. But no matter what, she wanted to make sure that wouldn't happen, or else he would easily lose hope in getting out of this situation. But that also made her realize she needed to make sure that wouldn't happen to herself in the process.

Eventually, they were back in Zootopia. All of them got dropped off by Biggy one at a time to their homes. Judy was the last one to be dropped off. As the van approached her apartment, Judy hesitated to get out.

"What are you waitin for, get outta the van already kid." Biggy ordered.

Judy continued to sit still with her head down in his van.

"Oh for the love of god, are you going to get out willingly, or am I going to have to use force?" He asked.

"Why do you do it?" Judy asked.

Biggy was confused. "Do what?"

"What you seem to do for Z. Does killing just seem to make you all feel better or something about your life, do you all enjoy the pain of other mammals?"

Biggy sighed. "It's not anything like that sweetheart, it's all about money. Z sure does pay a good amount to the people in his business, no matter what he asks for us to do."

"Uh huh." Judy said, still not believing him. "And I'm sure he pays a great amount if you were to kill anyone unnecessary, like say Bucky right?" She scowled.

Biggy rolled his eyes. "Just get the hell out of here already kid, and quit getting into business you obviously don't seem to understand."

"Oh I think I perfectly understand it now." Judy retaliated. She then got out of the van and closed the first back door, but decided to say one more thing to him before she closed the second door. "I guess I'll see you around Billy." She then slammed the second back door shut.

Biggy's eyes widened. _"Wait a minute, how the hell does she know my first name?!"_

Biggy then got out of the van and approached Judy at the entrance to her apartment. He then grabbed her by the hoodie and brought her into the nearest alleyway.

"How in the world do you know my first name?" Biggy asked.

Judy gave him a dirty look. "I don't know, just an educated guess I suppose Mr. Billy Shawn Vansnow.

Biggy started to become furious. "Now listen here rabbit, I don't know what you think you're doing looking into mine, or probably other mammals from Z's crew's profiles, but the more you dig into it, the more you five will most likely put others in danger."

"I didn't say all five of us looked it up, that was just with Simon Clawchip." Judy explained. "After learning Z's first name, I looked it up and found a news article made about fifteen years ago. Something about a new accountant at a bank, I don't know. But that was probably around the time when his business was just little, probably with only a few members in it. So I crossed referenced any charges that year in Zootopia that involved possession of a lethal weapon and found it. Apparently that incident involved weapon trafficking and unlucky for you guys, one of the trucks collided in with another truck on the highway, dropping the crates of weapons everywhere. All suspects besides Z were eventually found since no one ratted him out, but most of the charges were dropped anyways because the evidence somehow vanished into thin air in the evidence room leaving nothing to prove. All the mammals from that incident were ones I recognized from Z's crew. Thankfully, the names from that case were still left in the database at the ZPD."

Biggy felt like punching Judy hit on right in the face, but he knew it wasn't worth it. He shook his head and turned around.

"It's not like I wanted to keep this from Nick, Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser. I knew if Z ever found out about what I knew, he'd blame all of us. But the difference is this time it was all my doing, even you know Z can't argue with that."

"Why are you telling me this anyways?"

"Mainly because something tells me you already know." Judy accused. "Every time we had a job or request to meet up from Z, you always drove us. And when we tried to act silent behind your back all that time, I tended to notice your ears twitching only slightly when we started whispering to each other behind your back but I assumed it was nothing."

Biggy started to grip both of his hands as tight as he could with an angered expression on him, as he still had his back behind Judy.

"But the only thing I never understood was, why?" Judy asked.

Silence was all there was in the alleyway for a moment. Biggy then took out a gun from his suit and pointed it at Judy.

"Say _one_ more word rabbit, I dare you." Biggy threatened. "You think you know everything don't you? Well you DON'T."

Even with a gun on her, Judy continued staying serious with Biggy.

"Would you really shoot me over something as silly as this Billy?" She asked.

 _"_ _Don't_ call me that _."_

"Why?" Judy asked. "That's your name isn't it?"

"Shut up."

"Why?" She asked. "Because I'm saying the truth, because I'm simply speaking about what's on my mind right now?"

"Just SHUT UP!" He yelled.

Biggy then took the safety off the gun and even thought about shooting her. He just didn't want to hear another word from her since he knew Judy figured out his true intentions, and knows who he really is now.

At this point for him, it was almost as if he was choosing whose side he _wanted_ to be on. Throughout these past months, he himself has also been wondering whether he was doing the right thing or not.

"Do it then." Judy said. "If I know this much, then the next course of action would be to silence me. Just like you did with Bucky, right? I'm just like him, I'm someone who knows more than I shouldn't know. But if that's true…. then why can't you pull that trigger right now!?" She asked, as she started having tears come out of her eyes.

Biggy's hand started shaking, as he was hesitating to shoot. A few seconds later, he lowered the gun.

He sighed. "There's no point in denying it now. I would've tried to before, but it's hard to when you know everything someone is saying is true." He said, as he put his gun back in his suit. "So I may have overheard a thing or two that Z would have loved to hear about, but I knew but I knew that would just put quite a few of my colleagues in danger, especially Chip. I don't know what he was thinking when he decided to warn Clawhauser about that attack last month, but I do admit I was a little interested in seeing where that road would lead to."

* * *

August 14th, 2016, after the confrontation with Z at the hole with the four fake bodies.

 _"_ _So while I was putting some of my gear away as I was getting ready to go home, unlucky for Chip I happened to stumble across him as he was trying to snag one of the voice changing collars in the equipment room."_

"Chip?" Biggy said, as it alerted Chip.

"B-Biggy!" Chip said nervously. "Uh, what's up?"

"What are you doing with that voice changing collar?" Biggy asked.

"Uh, I'm not sure what you're referring to, they're all in the basket." Chip explained.

Biggy gave Chip an unimpressed look. "I'm not stupid Chip, I saw you shoving one into your back pocket."

Chip sighed, as he took the collar out of his back pocket.

"What were you planning on doing with that?" Biggy asked.

"Why do you care?"

"Chip, let me just break it to you." Biggy said. "I've been in this business long enough to know that something as suspicious as what you are doing right now is never a good thing. So I'm going to ask you again, what were you planning on doing with that?"

Chip stayed silent for a moment. He then decided to make a run for it, but Biggy grabbed him before he could even take another step. He then shoved Chip to the ground as he kept his foot on him while stretching his left arm.

"Not so fast Chip, I'm not finished with you just yet." Biggy said. "Especially after you trying to escape from me? You newbies are all the same aren't you."

"Alright alright, just get off me!" Chip pleaded.

Biggy smiled. He then let go of Chip's arm and took his foot off his back. Chip then stood up, as he tried to stretch his back after having it being stepped on.

Chip looked around making sure no one else was in sight.

"If I tell you, just please and I mean _please_ don't tell Z about this." Chip begged.

"I can't say I'd promise, but I'm sure I've heard worse." Biggy said. "Just tell me already."

"Fine." Chip said. "I wanted to warn that Clawhauser guy about the attack."

Biggy giggled. "I always thought you were a paranoid little wolf but this? This takes it to a whole new level bud."

Biggy then snagged the collar from Chip's paw.

"Look Biggy, I just didn't want anything bad to happen to anyone else, is that too much to ask?!" Chip shouted.

"It most certainly is if you're going to work in this kind of business Chip." Biggy said. "Now this is something certainly serious enough to tell Z."

Chip gulped, he thought he was done for. But to his surprise, Biggy threw the collar back to him.

Chip didn't understand. "W-what are you-"

"Do it." Biggy told him.

Chip was surprised. "Huh?" Was all he could say.

"No…." Biggy said. "On second thought, do what you think is right."

* * *

"And wouldn't you know it, right when I went out the door of the equipment room, he went out only a few seconds later with the collar in his back pocket." Biggy explained to Judy.

"But, why would you let him go and still not tell anyone about it?" Judy asked. "And if you knew about all those conversation then why didn't you ever tell Z? What good does it bring to you if you don't tell him?"

Biggy laughed. "You're saying it to me almost as if you want me to tell him."

Judy paused for a moment. "N-no, I just don't understand your motive for all of that."

Biggy thought about it. "Hmm, you know what? I think I'll leave that for another day Miss Hopps. Its night time, lots of crazy things have already happened and now I just want to get some sleep."

"When will _another day_ be?"

"A time when there will be another opportunity to."

"How do you know there will even be another opportunity?"

"I don't. But after tonight's results with Z, something tells me there will be a lot of time along the way to find one."

Biggy then started to walk back out of the alley, leaving Judy lost with words.

"Oh and Miss Hopps." Biggy called out.

Judy looked up at him to see what his last words to her were going to be.

"I don't expect you to ever forgive me about what happened to your neighbor Bucky. But after that incident, even someone like me felt something tear inside myself. It's just that feeling of knowing someone innocent dies and the blood is on your hands….."

Judy stayed silent, as she put her head back down.

"Maybe that's how some of your friends felt…. You know, once they had to do something like that. But Z…. to him, happiness is a distant memory."

Biggy continued to stand still for a moment and nodded before continuing to walk out of the alleyway back to his van, still leaving Judy speechless.

* * *

September 25th, 2016

Nothingness, nothingness, and more nothingness was all that was inside Nicks head throughout the rest of the night. His mother, the only family member and even mammal that helped him through his ruff childhood all because of his species, was now dead with her body left in the same hole he and his friends dug up to put the four false bodies in.

He couldn't help but feel that it was all his fault. _"If I had just done at least something even a little different, I'm sure I could've saved her. There, there has to have been."_ He thought.

Nick continued to stay in the same position in his bed all night with him right flat on his back, as he had his arm on his head trying to wipe off the tears that had been falling out of his eyes ever since he heard the gunshot that stopped more than ones heart.

"Knock, knock, knock." Went Nick's door.

He didn't want to answer it, not right now. He even acted as if he couldn't hear anything.

"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."

The continuous knocking on his door started to catch Nick's attention. He rarely gets large knocks on his doors. And whenever he did it was always about an emergency, but he still didn't want to open it anyways.

But just then, he started hearing odd twisting sounds coming from the knob of his door.

"CLICK." Went the lock on his door.

 _"_ _Did someone just unlock my door?"_ Nick thought. _"But that's impossible, I'm the only one who has a key."_

He even double checked his lamp table beside his bed to see that the key was still there. Then suddenly, he heard his door creak open. Nick knew this wasn't a good sign. He assumed it was some kind of a burglar. But either way, he took the USP gun he was given by Biggy before the gun trade a few months ago from under his bed and stood up.

He slowly opened the door to his bedroom and right away noticed his door was open. He then heard noises coming from his kitchen. He then held his gun up and slowly walked towards it. And then out of nowhere, a hooded figure stood up from under the counter.

"Paws up!" Nick shouted. "Don't make any sudden movements!"

The figure slowly put his or her paws up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing sneaking into my house, are you here to rob me?" Nick asked

The mammal didn't respond.

"And take off the silly hoodie already will ya?" Nick requested.

The figure then slowly took the hoodie off and turned around. Nick's eyes were wide open as he thought it was unbelievable. He even dropped his gun with a shocked expression still on his face.

"Amber?" Nick asked silently.

Amber looked at him in a serious expression crossing her arms.

"It's nice to see you again Mr. hooded guy with a pawpsicle on it, or should I say _Nicholas Wilde."_

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 15, Overflowed With Problems**


	16. Overflowed With Problems

**Chapter 15: Overflowed With Problems**

"Come on, any offer?" Duke Weaselton asked, as he was trying to sell his merchandise on the street. "Mammals, these are some good looking pieces of jewelry I'm offering here, and for a good price! Hey you, zebra guy, you lookin for something to impress a date? I got some good lookin accessories for you to give her here!"

The zebra chuckled. "I'm divorced, but thanks anyways."

"Aw come on, ya never know who's out there lookin!" Weaselton encouraged. "And just like that, you can easily impress one of em with these!" he said holding out jewelry.

"I appreciate it really, but I'm just not quite in the mood for jewelry buying right now." The zebra declined. "I was actually wondering if I could speak with you in private, just for a moment of your time."

Just then, a rhinoceros and a leopard stepped behind Weaselton, as if they were trying to act like towers to him. Weaselton started to get a little uncomfortable with the three mammals he was confronted by.

"What's this about, you're not loan sharks are you?" Weaselton asked nervously.

"Oh it's nothing like that, I just want to see if you know any whereabouts about a mammal we're trying to look for."

"W-why can't we just chat about it right here?"

The zebra raised an eyebrow. "Are you questioning me?"

Weaselton had a bad feeling about this, but he didn't see any other way around it. He looked around to see if any other possible customers were nearby, but no one was seen.

"Just a few minutes cause I got a shop to run here!"

"Sure, no problem." The zebra said, as he was trying not to worry him too much. "Follow us."

A few blocks away, the stopped by an alleyway to talk.

"So, what mammal are you wonderin about?" Weaselton asked.

"Are you aware of the name Amber Tailsmith?" The zebra asked.

"Well yea since I saw that name on the news talking about her and a bunch of other mammals going missing, what about it?"

"Do you know her last location?"

"Well I haven't really met her mammal to mammal so I wouldn't even know where she was before she went missing."

"Okay." The zebra said chuckling.

He then held out his hoove to the two mammals, and was then given a knife.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Weaselton shouted. "What do you plan on doin with that?"

The zebra smiled. "Now Mr. Weaselton, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way." He said as he pointed the knife at Weaselton. "And I wouldn't run if I were you."

The zebra then grabbed his shirt and stuck the knife on his throat.

"Well, what's it going to be?" The zebra asked.

"A-alright, alright I'll talk, I'll talk!" Weaselton whined.

The zebra then took the knife off his throat.

"All I got was a call from her saying that someone was after her and she needed a place to crash, just so she could lay low until the heat with whoever wanted her turned into rodent kill would die off, that's it!"

"And what did you say back?"

"Well I told her it wasn't worth it since I myself could wind up being rodent kill!"

"Hmph." The Zebra said. "Well thank you very much for this moment of your time, as well as the information you gave us which is quite helpful. But…."

The zebra then gave the knife back to the two mammal, in return they gave him a gun with a silencer on it.

 _"_ _Pew, pew, pew."_ Went the gun.

Weaselton then fell to the ground, unable to get up after being shot.

"We can't take the chance of you telling anyone, especially to Amber about this." The zebra explained as he watched the weasel stop twitching.

"What should we do with the body Z?" The rhinoceros asked.

"We could just leave it here." Z replied. "It's not like the ZPD are going to find any evidence on us anyways. Besides, after that incident with Donnie and Sam, I'm pretty sure they're aware of guns existing in the city by now. All we have to do is play our cards right and we can go back to the way things were before in no time."

* * *

Nick wasn't sure where to start. But the one thing that came to his mind first was, _"What is Amber Tailsmith doing in my apartment?!"_

"I can't say I didn't assume you would react this way, but even I'm surprised at myself that I had to go to drastic enough measures that I'd have to come here." Amber explained.

Nick then grabbed Amber by her shirt and started dragging her.

"Hey, what are you-" Amber said before being thrown onto Nick's couch.

"What the heck was that for?!" Amber yelled.

Nick then sat on one of the chairs by his couch and stretched his face with his paws.

"Let me just start off with the _basic_ questions alright?" Nick said. "First off, how in the hell did you know I was the hooded one?!"

"It's a long story Mr. Wilde." Amber answered.

"Oh, ho, I got all the time in the world now honey!" Nick scowled.

Amber rolled her eyes. "Well to put it short, I eavesdropped on some of Z's crew and heard one of them mention that those five missing mammals on the news from last week were their relatives. I looked up one of the missing mammals and it turns out, one of them was a woman named Sarah Wilde. Now of course, I can't get into any of the profiles on these mammals, but right when we first met at that café, I knew you were a fox right when I saw your tail.

Nick now feels a little stupid for not covering his tail that day.

"And ironically, Sarah Wilde was also a fox. That's when I recalled a fox police officer that people talked about all the time on the news months ago named Nick _Wilde_. I searched to see if there were any other foxes in Zootopia that had that last name, but the only ones that came up were you and only you. Even I didn't want to believe it at first since I thought, why would a cop want to be working in a business like Z's if it is if not, the biggest criminal organization in the entire city? I just assumed that you really were a sly fox under that uniform, but when we spoke to each other back behind that café, it didn't make sense for you to be doing this willingly."

"It wasn't willingly at all actually." Nick protested. "We were forced to do all this stuff. Either we did it, or we don't do it and the people close to us would pay the consequences. At least that's what Z told us from the very beginning."

"You really had it that hard on you?"

"And that brings me to my next question, _why are you here?"_

"Well where else was I supposed to go?" Amber asked. "All my friends were killed, I'm a wanted person by one of the biggest psychopaths around, and no matter where else I go in the world, that guy can find me!"

"Then why are you choosing here, what makes you think this place is any different from the rest of the world?"

"Because it's plain sight!" Amber replied. "None of my old friends from in Zootopia would help me, but do you really think they would expect Amber Tailsmith to be inside Nick Wilde's house?"

"But why me?" Nick asked. "Don't you have like a mom or dad to ask for help?"

"That'll be like asking him to find me." Amber snapped back. "If Z was able to get a hold of our profiles, he'd probably be looking at all of my known friends and family to get a location on me. I thought you were smarter than that."

"Well why are you turning to me?!" Nick shouted.

"Because I have no one else to turn to!" Amber answered. "Everywhere I look, he will find me! If you and those other hooded mammals of yours tried so hard to protect me and my friends, then what makes it any different from protecting me now?"

Nick started to get more stressed, as he laid his head on his paws.

"The difference is, that was in the past."

"So what then, are you just going to kick me out and let me get killed by Z's mammals?"

Nick growled. "Not my problem Amber."

"Oh it certainly is your problem!" Amber snapped back. "Because if you leave me with nowhere to go, once I'm caught I'll tell Z you wouldn't kill me when I came to your apartment. I wonder how he's going to act to that."

"You wouldn't…."

"Yea I would, you want to try me?"

"Oh so what, you're blackmailing other mammal's lives just to save your own?"

Amber then stood up, seeming to be angry.

"Now listen here Mr. Wilde." Amber said in a serious tone. "I can't even _imagine_ what you and your friends have been through in these past months, but I am NOT DYING ANYTIME SOON."

* * *

"I mean I don't know, he's probably just still trying to take it all in." Judy said. "It's never easy to comprehend something like what happened last night, but the more sick days he takes the more Bogo might find it to be a little suspicious acting. I don't know what Z will be asking us to do, but everything we've done so far, it's never ended well for us. What do you think?"

Judy looked up to see Clawhauser snoring on the front desk with his arms covering his head. Judy rolled her eyes and decided to continue walking to the bullpen. But it felt weird since nearly every time she went to bullpen, Nick would always be following her there.

As she entered the bullpen, she started to hear a lot more whispering going on than usual.

 _"_ _Did something happen?"_ She thought.

Right when she got up onto her chair, Chief Bogo then entered the room. The odd part was that he didn't have to tell anyone to shut up. She knew it meant that they really wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Now before we start with the assignments today, I'd like to confirm a couple of things with all of you about the incident this morning." Bogo explained. "I know some of you are aware of it, but not everyone is so I will explain. Earlier this morning, we found a weasel by the name of Duke Weaselton murdered in an alleyway on Jaguar lane in Sahara Square."

 _"_ _What?!"_ Judy thought. _"I always thought that weasel was a no gooder, but what could he have done to tick someone off that bad?"_

"Not too long ago, we were given the autopsy on the case." Bogo continued. "Apparently he was shot three times straight through the chest. Not too long after he was shot did his body shut down."

 _"_ _Z."_ Judy thought. _"Other than the ZPD, he and his crew are the only ones who would have access to guns in Zootopia. But why would Z kill Weaselton? Did he know something Z didn't want him to tell to the ZPD?"_

"We have reason to believe there is a connection to this murder from the incident with the attack on Officer Clawhauser at that public park. Why? Because both of these cases involve weapons, specifically guns. Also, when we searched for the shell casings of the bullets, there were none in sight meaning that someone was trying to cover this up. We are still unsure of what this means public safety wise, but we ask all of you to stay cautious once more if there is a possibility there are still mammals out there who are still wielding this type of weaponry. Now then, assignments."

After all the assignments were read everyone exited the bullpen, Judy decided to call Nick to see how he's doing from the events of last night. However, she didn't expect him to pick up.

* * *

"Yea, I'm pretty sure I got that message right when you let yourself into my home!" Nick replied. "You ever heard of knocking?"

"Well considering you're a cop, I assumed you'd be at work by now." Amber said.

"Oh, and OF COURSE that means you can just barge right into my home." Nick said shaking his head. "Besides, It's complicated."

"HA!" Amber shouted. "It's like you said yourself, I got all the time in the world _honey._ "

"It's none of your business!"

"Oh yea says the mammal who continuously keeps asking me personal things as if you're asking me for the STORY OF MY LIFE-"

"MY MOTHER JUST DIED LAST NIGHT!" Nick yelled at Amber furiously.

Amber's eyes widened as she couldn't believe it herself. "Wait, what?" She asked.

Nick then fell right onto the couch putting his face on the pillow and started to cry once more. Amber started to feel a little sorry for him. She heard about the incident that happened last night, but she never expected something as horrible as that to happen.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry to hear that…." Amber said sorrowly. "Is there anything I can do or-"

"GET OUT!" Nick yelled, as he stood up and yelled it in her face.

Amber paused for a moment while staring at him depressingly as he was still right in her face with an angered look. Without saying another word, she grabbed her backpack she left in the kitchen and walked out slamming the door.

Nick then let out a big exhale while stretching his face with his paws. He then walked up to the wall and stared at it for a few moments.

"BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM, BAM!" Went the sounds of Nick punching the wall over and over. All he wanted to do was let it all out on the closest thing to him since he knew if it wasn't the wall, it would've been Amber.

Just then, Nick's phone started to ring from his bedroom. He then walked over to it and picked it up, seeing that it was Judy who was calling.

 _"_ _She probably just wants to see how I'm doing."_ Nick thought. " _But jeez, doesn't anyone know a thing about privacy these days when it comes to losing a relative?!"_

"What is it Judy?" Nick asked, as he answered the phone.

 _"_ _Hey Nick…."_ Judy greeted uncomfortably, after Nick's snappy talking. _"Well I didn't see you at the ZPD today, and Bogo's a little mad since you never called in about it so…."_

"Well why do you think?!" Nick shouted. There was a pause for a moment with Nick not hearing anything on the phone. He sighed. "Look, just tell him something like my phone wasn't working or that I wasn't feeling well, but I was going to tell him about it tomorrow."

Judy tried to move on from the awkward moment that just happened. _"A-anyways, did you ever happen to turn on the TV or radio today?"_

Nick didn't quite understand what she was implying. _"_ Why, what happened?"

" _I'm sure you remember that weasel Duke Weaselton right?"_

 _"_ Yea, what about him?"

" _He was murdered this morning!"_

Nick was surprised. "What, what happened?"

 _"_ _I don't know much about the story to it other than the fact that he was left somewhere in an alleyway at Sahara square. But get this, he was shot."_

That started to catch Nick's attention. _"Shot?"_ He thought. " _Why was he even killed in the first place?"_

"What do you mean he was shot?"

 _"_ _Well Bogo said said the autopsy showed that he appeared to have been shot three times in the chest and eventually died."_ Judy explained. _"But the odd part about it is that there weren't any empty shell casings laying around, so it's obvious someone tried to cover this up but didn't want to take the body."_

Nick had a bad feeling in his head as to who might have done it.

"So you think it was Z then, it sounds like something he would do if he doesn't want to get caught."

" _I don't know."_ Judy replied. " _But if no possible or even remote suspects have been named yet, something tells me he played his cards right by avoiding the cameras and any mammals on that street. Still though, I don't see a reason why he would want to take out a weasel like him."_

"Who knows carrots, maybe he just scammed a bunch of his guys and Z wanted their money back."

 _"_ _But instantly after what happened last night?"_ Judy questioned. " _You'd think he would have more important matters to attend to than take care of what he would call a 'street rat' like Weaselton."_

Nick shrugged to himself. "I don't know, but whatever it is we probably wouldn't know the information to.

 _"_ _But remember that time in the desert with all those bodies he left there?"_ Judy asked _. "Don't you think he would bury the bodies instead of keeping them behind by now?"_

"What, are you saying Z purposely left his body in that alleyway to be found?"

 _"_ _Maybe, I don't know."_ Judy said, as she was unsure herself. _"He may have just not even seen a need to hide it if the ZPD is already aware of guns existing in the city after that incident with Clawhauser last month."_

Nick sighed. "Judy we can just go on with this forever so why don't we just meet somewhere later tonight, after your shift is done?"

Judy thought about it. _"Sure, I guess we can. Where this time?"_

"I'd rather somewhere public this time, I just want to…. Try and get my mind off of last night. At least for now."

 _"_ _Yea, I understand." Judy agreed. "We could always go to the food court at the Roar mall in Savannah Central. You know where that is right?"_

 _"_ I know where every place is, in Zootopia by now carrots."

 _"_ _Alright, well I guess I'll see you around there say…. Seven?"_

"Why not."

* * *

 _"_ _What is wrong with you Danny?!"_

"Jeez, what mammal rattled your tail today Matt?" Danny asked, as he was on the phone with his brother Matthew Wolford, also known to Nick, Judy and Clawhauser as Officer Wolford.

 _"_ _Our own mother goes missing for at least a week now and you don't even show the slightest concern for her!"_

"Aw what do you want me to do big brother, walk up to you and burst into tears while hugging your legs?" Danny asked sarcastically. "I fear every day for her safety that I can't even remember when the last time was that I slept for more than two hours! But what do you expect me to do Matthew, you and the ZPD have been searching for her for about a week now but still not one hair of evidence has been found."

 _"_ _Well at least you can try to visit dad once in a while!"_ Matthew said furiously _. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he's been a mental wreck ever since mom went missing. Would it kill you for at least two seconds to comfort him while she isn't here?"_

"Well how was I supposed to know he'd be like that if he never calls me about it?"

 _"_ _Oh is that it, you expect him to call you to come and be with him?_ Matthew asked. " _God it's like you don't have any common sense at all!"_

 _"_ Well I've been busy Matt!" Danny replied. "I've been busy a lot lately with work. I mean I got to pay my bills somehow if you haven't noticed."

 _"_ _Busy enough to not stop by just for a second to be there for your family, are you serious right now Daniel?"_

Danny groaned. "I gotta go dude."

 _"_ _Somethings not been right with you lately Danny."_ Matthew said in a serious tone. _"You and your stories of saying that I got this and that to do and never seeing any of us anymore can't just simply be out of nowhere if you've had the same job for years now. If you've gotten yourself into something you shouldn't have gotten into, whether you lie or tell the truth about it I don't care, I will figure it out eventually."_

"Uh huh, and when you see that it's nothing, maybe I'll accept your apology." Danny scowled as he hung up the phone.

Even though he stayed cool in that conversation, he was very concerned since he realized his own brother started to become suspicious of him for things he in fact _is_ doing, but at the same time is being forced to. He knew he had to keep a closer eye out for him now, or else he may end up getting his own brother killed.

* * *

"Do you think Z was just trying to send us a message of some type?" Judy asked, as she and Nick were having dinner at the food court while making sure no one could hear them.

"No, he wouldn't just shoot a mammal to make us fear him, he's already done enough of that as it is." Nick explained. "But Judy, um…. I should probably let you know about what happened with me today at my apartment."

Judy started to feel a little edgy with where she thought Nick was going with this.

"Why, what happened?" Judy asked.

Nick made sure once more no one was around. "Amber was at my apartment earlier this afternoon." He whispered.

Judy gasped. "What?!" She whispered loudly. "What the heck was she doing at your apartment?"

"Something about figuring out who I was and saying that she had no other place to turn to now that Z was still on her tail."

"Did she go to the ZPD?"

"Well nothing has been said on the news yet so probably not." Nick replied. "She must think his organization is big enough that even if she is at the ZPD she won't be safe. Especially if her location will be broadcasted right in front of Z's eyes."

"Is she still there?"

"Well, not anymore." Nick said hesitating. "I sort of kicked her out."

"Sort of, what do you mean sort of?"

"I found her breaking into my house." Nick said. "And then we got into a bit of an argument which I admit, made me flip out a little so without thinking I told her to get out."

Judy jumped back to her seat. "Well you could've told me to come over or at least something." Judy said. "I mean at least we could've tried to help her somehow."

"But Judy, agh." Nick said hesitating. " Look, every time we tried to help mammals in the past, it has _always_ backfired on us. what's there to say it won't happen again?"

"Oh so what, we should just let Z find her and put a bullet in her head?" Judy argued. "Do you at least know where she might've gone?"

"Well, maybe one place…." Nick said thinking about it. "But it doesn't matter Judy. Helping Amber will just put us in a bigger hole than we already are, and I'm not sure how much further down I can go. we're already overflowed with problems as it is!"

"But do you know that will happen?"

Nick rolled his eyes. "Well there sure is a high possibility."

Judy sighed. "Whatever, I'm going to head back to my place, thanks for the food Nick."

"No problem." Nick said smoothly.

As she started to walk, she turned to face Nick once more. "Nick, you should really think about it though." Judy requested. "You say it's a likely possibility helping her will get us in more danger. But what you're missing is that without helping her, she will have a higher chance of dying. And if you make that choice, let's just say living with guilt isn't a fun thing to do."

"What's the guilt in it?"

"The fact that if we do get out of this mess, we really could have saved a life along the way."

Judy then walked away, leaving her half of the money to Nick. But Nick still sat there, still being unsure of what to do. Either do nothing and do the jobs Z asks him to without hiding anything but possibly leaving another mammal dead, or help her and have a chance of risking a lot more lives on the line, but if it works another mammals life will be saved.

* * *

She knew she was as good as dead now no matter what. She just sat there drinking her latte simply waiting for Z to kill her and get it over with. The only thing she _could_ do now that didn't involve others dying would be for her to simply give up.

 _"_ _Heh, it's funny."_ Amber thought. " _Months ago, there were twelve in this café who would always come here just to get along, just to have normal, simple, and social chats since all of us really did get along."_

She imagined all of the members from Lenny's gang were still in the café, even Lenny.

 _"_ _But now it's just me…. Alone."_ She thought, as she saw all the images of her deceased crew members mist away.

She dropped her head on the table with her hoodie still up. She then wrapped her arms around her head with her head still on the table and started to cry. As she was crying, she heard the sound of a chair pushing out from her table. When she looked up to see who it was, she was in disbelief once more.

"Something told me you'd be here." Nick said. "I knew one of the only places you would grab something to eat would be the snarlbucks café, which is coincidentally also the first place we met."

"….." Amber didn't know how to answer, so she just listened.

"Listen about earlier, I'm sorry I snapped at you a little." Nick said apologizing. "It's just…. Losing someone that's always been there for you is just really hard to take in."

"pffft, if you think that's a loss, try losing all eleven of your crew members and friends." Amber said glaring at Nick.

"Yea…" Nick said slowly. "Well I'll just cut to the chase-"

"I _know_ what you're going to ask, why else would you be here right now?"

Nick laid back on his chair and crossed his arms. "Well, do you still want to?"

There was another bit of silence between them for a moment. Amber then got up and reached for Nick hugging him, as she started dropping tears of joy, something she hasn't shedded in a long time.

"Thank you." She whispered into his ear.

"Don't mention it." He replied.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 16, Perfection**


	17. Perfection

**Chapter 16: Perfection**

October 2nd, 2016. One week later.

"Uh huh, yes, yes I understand the conditions but is this the permanent price for your offer?" Z asked, as he was on the phone with one of his buyers. "Oh fantastic then! Do we have it? Well… not at the moment but I'm sure I can go outside the law if that's what it takes to get it. Yes I understand these conditions of loyalty with your matters. Alright, I'll be in touch when I have it." He said, as he hung up the cell phone. He clicked a button on the phone. "Britney, send Johnny and Biggy over here will ya?"

" _Right away sir."_ Britney replied.

A few minutes later, Biggy and Johnny appeared in Z's office as they took a seat in front of his desk.

"Do you know a business mammal named Mr. Hoble?"

"Yea, isn't he that rabbit CEO of the icarrot phone company in Zootopia?"

"Precisely." Z said. "Now in a few months he will be retiring as CEO and wants to do a very special event with some of his colleagues. Don't ask how he knows about this story, but let's just say I helped him with some business issues back in the day anonymously. Now his motivations for this event are out of my league, but with the amount of rifles he's asking for, he offered at least a million bucks for them."

"Holy smokes." Johnny said.

"It surely is a great deal for just twenty of our weapons, but there's a condition to it." Z explained. "You see, he really wants to see a mammal's loyalty before he makes deals with other business mammals. So before we can deliver him the weapons and get our money which is apparently going to be given in cash, we've got to get something for him."

"What are we stealing this time Z?" Biggy asked crossing his arms.

"Well he's a big fan of jazz apparently so in order to quote 'prove our loyalty', we need to bring him a jazz transcription disc called Animal Kingdom or something like that."

"Did you look for it online?" Biggy asked.

"I did, and I found one match." Z replied. "There seems to be one in a wall of archives section at the Cotton club which is thankfully in Zootopia."

"Aw crap." Johnny murmered. "That was the place where that bar fight happened with most of our crew members two years ago. Lots of innocent mammals were seriously injured that night so they banned us all from that club."

"Oh, that's a shame." Z said displeased. "well I guess we're going to have to turn this little mission to some other mammals then."

"Who?" Johnny asked.

* * *

Nick felt like it was yet another simple and everyday kind of morning for him. He gets up at 7:00 am.

" _BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP."_ Went the alarm.

"Uhhhhhhh, someone tell that feather to stop stomping…." Nick mumbled, as he was trying to get a few more minutes of sleep.

Gets some breakfast, but was interrupted by the sounds of snoring on his couch.

Nick walked in front of Amber. "Would it kill you to sleep just a bit more peacefully Amber?" Nick asked.

"uh…. What?" Amber groaned, still being half asleep.

"Rise and shine!" Nick called out as he was in the kitchen taking out some lucky chomps. "Do you want lucky chomps or frosted flakes?"

Amber continued to groan. "It's not easy to be woken up this early for me if you haven't noticed!"

Nick decided to ignore her complaining. "Lucky chomps or frosted flakes Amber, what's it gonna be?"

Amber sighed. "Frosted flakes." She called out, still being grumpy. "But not too much because I hear there's a lot of sugar in that-! You've got to be kidding me." Amber said looking up at Nick. "Would it kill _you_ to go out and buy some pajamas instead of walking around in your underwear?"

"Hey my place, my rules Amber." Nick answered. "Your frosted flakes are ready!"

"No way." Amber denied. "I'm not going anywhere near you until you got something else on."

Nick groaned. _"Is this a girl thing or does she just really not like me?"_ He thought.

"Ugh fine." Nick said, still annoyed. "If you're gonna be that whiny about it, then I'll just eat in my room."

Nick poured his own bowl of cereal and walked back to his room. Meanwhile Amber eventually got up and walked into the kitchen to get her cereal bowl. But right when she took a seat back on the couch, the home phone started to ring.

"Nick, the phones ringing!" Amber called out.

"Who is it?" Nick asked, as he was laying back down on his bed trying to eat.

Amber then got up from the couch once more, and went back into the kitchen to see the number on the phone.

"I can't make heads or tails of it!" She shouted

"Well, what does it say?" He shouted back.

"It doesn't say much." Amber replied. "Just the numbers 11323."

 _"_ _Crap"_ Nick thought.

Nick dropped his cereal and stormed out the door running to his kitchen to pick up the phone.

"Who is it?" Amber asked.

Nick then got to the phone, picked it up and answered it.

"Hello hello?" Nick answered.

" _Mr. Wilde, i'm assuming you just woke up."_ The voice said.

"What do you and your little crew want with me now?" He asked

 _"It seems your assistance is needed once more."_ The voice said. " _Meet us at the warehouse_ _at exactly seven pm for further orders."_ As soon as the voice finished her last words, she hung up.

As Nick slowly put the phone back, Amber approached Nick.

"Oh I'm sorry, I thought you said you didn't want to see me like this." Nick teased.

Amber shook her head. "It doesn't matter right now. Who exactly was that that you had to rush out in order to hear?"

Nick turned his eyes downward as he scratched his neck while trying to avoid the question Amber was asking him, but Amber wasn't seeming to back off from her question.

Nick wasn't sure whether he should tell Amber the truth or not. "Um, it's just….. just a very close friend of mine who wanted to let me know about a time we're meeting up at later tonight."

"Mmhm, how close?" Amber asked in disbelief.

Nick put his paws on his waist as he moved his head towards Amber's.

"Close enough." He replied. "Why, you wondering if I'm _seeing_ anyone?"

"HAH!" Amber barked. "I got better things to think about than that! Besides, I'd never fall for a fox like yourself who obviously is a bad liar, at probably isn't even good with females."

"You speak for yourself." Nick countered. "You're just as much of a fox as I am to if you haven't noticed! And what do you mean I'm a bad liar?"

"Oh come on, I'm sure you know by now lots of foxes can tell a lie from a mile away." Amber implied. "After all, they're pretty good liars themselves."

"Yea….. that's what you think." Nick argued.

Amber rolled her eyes. "My point is Nick, I don't think you're being completely honest with me about this."

Nick frowned at Amber. "Believe what you want, but I think you're overreacting."

Amber continued to glare at Nick for a moment as Nick eventually noticed her odd staring.

Nick started to get frustrated. "Oh come on Amber, what else can I tell you-"

Amber then grabbed on his ears and started pulling on them.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Nick whimpered. "Quit it!"

"Are you going to tell me now?" Amber asked.

"I-I can't!" Nick cried. "Agh!"

Amber began to pull harder on his ears. "Now…?" She asked.

"Alright alright, it was Z's mammals alright!?" He admitted.

Amber was surprised. She let go of Nick and waited for him to stop being a baby and get up from the floor.

"What were Z's mammals calling for, and why would you want to hide it from me?" Amber asked.

"I didn't want to hide it from you, I just didn't want you to get worked up like you are right now." Nick Said trying to defend himself. "And they never end up telling us on the phone. We just have to hear it from him himself."

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe he just really doesn't want anyone else to know if he's that paranoid that police would be hearing."

"Speaking of which, while you're there can you try to ask them about where they're at with my current whereabouts?"

"I don't know Amber, it won't be easy to ask them though without being suspicious." Nick realized. "Not to mention Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser are aware of you being here after all. So I may have to tell them eventually, but it will be hard to tell how long they can keep their mouths shut."

"Just try will ya?"

"Try, sure. Doing, not really sure."

* * *

"You want us to do what now?" Finnick asked, as he, Judy, Nick, Clawhauser and Danny were all at the warehouse talking to Z.

"I know, it seems a little out of the ordinary with what you thought I'd be asking you, but most of my mammals were banned from that club so I got to turn to you five." Z explained. "Otherwise, Drew Hoble won't accept the deal. As much of a pain as it sounds, we have to do it."

"Please, it doesn't take five mammals just to get a little transcription disc." Danny said. "The max we'll really need is three. One for distraction, one for lookout and one to actually take the disc."

"You're forgetting about cameras Danny." Nick brought up, as he was laying back on his chair.

"I wouldn't worry about that Mr. Wilde." Z reassured. "I've done some research and apparently that places business is going down the drain. They're so cheap they don't even have cameras installed in that place. I wouldn't be surprised if items were stolen all the time there. However, the Transcription disc is still locked in a glass cupboard so the way I see it there's two options. Option one you go in noisy, break the glass and steal the transcription disc and get away without anyone finding you. Option two you do it sneaky, try to get some keys or a pick lock to the cupboard, take it and get out while making sure no one noticed it missing for long enough."

"I might be a little rusty at it, but I think I might be able to pick lock it." Finnick said.

"Yea I feel like the sneaky way is safer." Danny voted.

"Well if we're doing it that way then like Danny said, we only need three people max if we also want to limit our chances of anyone recognizing us.

"If so, then who would volunteer to do this?"

The five looked at each to see if anyone would volunteer.

"Hell, I'm the only one here who probably knows at least something about how to pick lock so I guess I'll go." Finnick said.

Danny shrugged. "I guess keeping a lookout shouldn't be too hard of a job to do."

"Alright, so now we need a distraction…." Z pointed out. "How about this, which of the three left would you guys say is the best distraction?"

Everyone immediately looked at Nick. "Of course you all got your eyes on me." He said not sounding surprised. "Alright fine, but don't blame me if you find me to be sloppy at it. It isn't what I would consider myself to be best at anyways even if it may seem like it."

"Are you sure there's nothing me and Clawhauser can do?" Judy asked.

"If you two can act like you always do to the public, it surely is the most helpful you two can be." Z replied.

Clawhauser looked at Judy. "You want to just go grab some donuts then Judy?"

Judy put her arms up and wanted to argue back since she still didn't exactly find this to be fair, but she knew there would be no point in doing it when it came to Z's standards. Without saying anything else, she stormed out of Z's office and continued to get out of the warehouse while Clawhauser followed her.

"Alright then, shall we get to it?" Z asked.

"Wait, now?" Danny asked.

"No, after your coffee break of course now!" Z exclaimed.

"Uh, but before we go, do you mind if I ask you something like totally out of the ordinary with this job?" Nick asked.

"It depends how out of the ordinary it is Mr. Wilde." Z replied.

"I'm just curious if you ever did finish the job on that fox Amber yet."

"That is a pretty out of the ordinary question." Z said. "As much as I want you five to do it, you for some reason can't. Nothing is known about her yet, but we are under suspicions that she may have come back to Zootopia."

 _"_ _How would they have known that?"_ Nick thought.

"But come on Z, even if you do find her then what would be the point of killing her?" Nick asked.

"As I said to you already, she may have seen your faces back on the Claw street gun trade incident." Z replied. "If the ZPD ever found out about that then-"

"See that's the thing though Z." Nick said interrupting Z. "Her entire crew is already dead meaning she's got no one to turn to. But if what you're saying is true that she's in Zootopia, don't you think she would have gone to the ZPD by now? Listen, I know I'm sort of speaking for myself here but out of twelve mammals, do you really think a fox would be the one to rat your crew out? I mean I'm sure she would get caught herself for the businesses she's probably been doing, at least supposedly."

Z thought about it. "You seemed to be awfully concerned about a mammal you don't even know anything about Mr. Wilde."

"Well what'd you expect?" Finnick said. "Ever since that little incident with what you did to his mother, wouldn't you expect him to not want any more mammals to die that wouldn't even matter to you anymore?"

Z thought about it, but shook his head. "This is a conversation for another time. Now get off your tails and go get that disc."

* * *

The Cotton Club didn't seem to be too packed, but it still didn't seem to make it any less challenging than it already was.

"You'll be able to get away if we're seen, right?" Finnick asked, as he, Nick and Danny were in the van with Biggy in the driver's seat.

"I wouldn't hold your breath on it." Biggy replied. "Just go in there, get the disc and get out. Simple as that."

"Yea, that's what you think." Nick said.

"Just go!" Biggy shouted annoyed. "And don't forget the bag, we don't want anyone outside seeing you guys with that disc except for me."

The three got out of the van and made their way inside. Once they got a good look of the inside of the club, they immediately noticed the Animal Kingdom transcription disc they were looking for in the glass cupboard beside the door. The only problem was that a camel security guard was right in front of it.

"Were going to need some sort of a distraction if we want him to move on that disc." Finnick whispered.

"Ok, and how the hell are we going to do that genius?" Danny whispered.

 _"_ _Now then, would anyone like to come up here and give it a try for a song?_ " The mammal on the stage asked the audience, as he was speaking into the microphone.

Finnick then had an idea. "Say Nick, do you know any good band songs?"

"A few why-" Nick paused after realizing where Finnick was going with this. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no."

"But it's the perfect distraction Nick!" Finnick whispered loudly. "Come on, you wanted to be a distractor, this is as good as it gets. It'll be able to distract him for a long enough time that we can be in and out of here in just five minutes!"

"I never said I _wanted_ to be a distractor." Nick complained crossing his arms. "And you make it sound like five minutes is nothing when it comes to security guards."

"It depends how lazy they are with their job." Danny pointed out.

Finnick rolled his eyes still being annoyed with Nick. " _Just_ try it out-"

"Okay, okay fine." Nick interrupted. "But I blame you if this doesn't work."

"Fair enough, but at least I'll have a good laugh at you before I die!" Finnick said, as he slapped his knee while laughing hysterically.

Nick shook his head. He then walked over to the stage and held out his paw to the ferret holding the microphone.

"I'll try." Nick said to the ferret.

 _"_ _Ooh, looks like we got a fox doing a song for us tonight, what will you be doing for us?"_ The ferret asked.

Nick shrugged. "Spidermammal jazz theme, I'm sure you guys know that one by now right?" He asked speaking into the Microphone.

 _"_ _Alright well, we wish you the best of luck!"_ The ferret said, as he handed the microphone to Nick.

Nick let out a big sigh and listened to the tunes for him to begin singing.

As he was singing, the guards' body started to turn to where Nick was singing. This gave Finnick the perfect opportunity to pick the lock from the cupboard. Danny made sure the guard along with any mammals nearby weren't paying attention. But even he got a little distracted since he thought Nick's singing really wasn't as bad as he thought.

"How's it looking Finnick?" Danny whispered starting to get nervous.

"Just give me a second, don't rush me!" Finnick whispered back. "Got it! Now reach up there, grab the disc and let's get the hell out of here!"

Danny reached up and slowly grabbed the disc in the cupboard. He then carefully took it out of the cupboard, put it in the bag and zipped it up.

"You're sure no one saw us right?" Finnick asked.

"Well if they did, they would've yelled out something by now." Danny replied. "Besides, even the security guards are too distracted with Nicks surprising well singing to care anyways. Let's just get out of here and meet him back at the van."

They then walked out of the club and went back into Biggy's van.

"Where the fox?" Biggy asked.

"Oh he'll be here in a second." Danny answered. "I think he was just finishing up with the song we asked him to do for a distraction."

"This really better have been worth it." Finnick said. "Why does this Drew Hoble guy even want this disc anyways? If he really wanted that bad, couldn't he have just bought it from these guys or just try and find it somewhere else? Why have us get it for him?"

"I guess that's just how he does things." Biggy replied. "Lots of mammals we've made deal with have asked us to do odd things like this. But if the price is right, we do it for em anyways we don't care enough for an explanation."

A few minutes later, Nick came out of the club.

"What kind of a song takes ten minutes to sing that you know about?" Finnick asked, wondering what took Nick so long.

"It wasn't just one song Finnick." Nick replied. "The audience just wanted an encore so I thought if it means I'd be able to blend in more, I should just do more than one song. It's all about perfection Finnick. Besides, you never told me you'd be finished with the job in _under_ five minutes."

"You always underestimate me don't you?" Finnick asked.

"No." Nick replied. "Well, at least not always."

"Oh yea, what a load off my chest." Finnick said sarcastically.

"Let's just get out of here Biggy." Danny said.

Biggy then started the van and drove back to the warehouse.

* * *

1 hour earlier.

Judy then kicked the trapdoor open and walked back to the train station. Along the way, Clawhauser was trying to catch up to her, but had trouble doing so in the process.

"Judy, Judy!" Clawhauser called out. "Judy, will you just stop for one second?"

Judy stopped. "What was all that about with you stomping out of the office like that?" Clawhauser asked.

"It's just unfair." Judy replied. "Why does Z need to make Nick, Danny and Finnick do the dirty work while we can simply go out and like you said, 'get donuts'?"

Clawhauser laughed. "You're overreacting Judy, it's only a three person job anyway. _We_ just happened to not be picked for it."

"But you're missing the point though Clawhauser!" Judy stammered. "With those three going off doing that job of Z's, what's he going to make us two do? Whatever job we're going to have to do next, he will be having us do it since he knows us two have done _nothing_ for him yet!"

"That's not true, remember that gun trade we did back on Claw street?"

"Oh sure, I guess eight mammals being killed is what Z would consider a successful gun trade right?" Judy questioned, putting her paws on her waist as she walked towards Clawhauser. "And let us not forget the three other mammals Z's crew killed because of them being connected to that incident, along with Amber Tailsmith who still supposedly missing. Not to mention you killed two members of Z's crew. You should consider yourself lucky you're still alive after that attack."

"Hey, that's uncalled for Judy!" Clawhauser hissed, as he pointed his finger at Judy. "You know I didn't have a choice on that one."

"Yea and apparently Finnick didn't have a choice of killing Jet either I guess." Judy said sarcastically. "or is that still what you would consider 'doing something for Z'?"

Clawhauser laid his left paw on his waist, while laying his right paw on his face as he was looking for the words to say to Judy. He knew she was freaking out, but he also knew taking it out and blaming it on others wasn't the right choice.

"Look Judy, I know it's been hard on us but-"

"Oh please Clawhauser." Judy interrupted. "I've heard enough sympathy speeches from others and even myself, but they _never_ help since another death would simply come along the way after it."

Clawhauser was lost for words. Whatever he thought of saying, he knew Judy would simply counter back on it.

Judy sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow." She said as she walked away.

"B-but Judy-!"

"Enough Clawhauser!" She yelled.

Clawhauser then stood in the rain with his head down after being yelled at by Judy. eventually, he continued to walk with Judy no longer being in sight. Even though Judy wouldn't go with him, he still decided to get a donut anyways while he was heading back home as well.

* * *

All those missing mammal cases have been especially on chief Bogo's mind throughout the past few months. Every night he would work and work non-stop on trying to find them, but to no avail. As he was in his office trying to pinpoint their last known locations on his map, he heard knocking on his door.

"Who is it?" Chief Bogo called out.

"It's Officer Jackson, I just wanted to give you a heads up on some cases."

"Alright, you may enter." Bogo said as the lion entered the room. "It better be important though, I'm a little busy here with most of these missing mammal cases."

"Actually, that's what I was here to give news about."

Bogo raised an eyebrow. "What's the word?"

"Well you know about some of the missing mammals whose disappearances are under the suspicions of guns being involved?"

Bogo nodded. "What about them?"

"Well word is there's this rabbit outside saying that he knows something about it." Jackson informed. "He says it could be a big break in these cases that have popped up recently in the past few months."

Bogo was surprised. "And who might this mammal be that you speak of Jackson?"

"Drew Hoble."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 17, Playing With Fire**

 **If you want to know a possible song Nick was singing, you can look at "here comes the spiderman" (spidermammal for Zootopia) which I do not own just to clear that up as well.**


	18. Playing With Fire

**In case you were wondering, yes it is a new summary. The old one just felt a little off for me with how I was trying to talk about this story in general. Anyways I won't leave you reading this side note forever so, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 17: Playing With Fire**

"What kind of a rabbit would even want a disc like this in particular?" Finnick asked, as he was looking at the transcription disc him, Danny and Nick stole while they were driving back to the warehouse to get dropped off. "I mean I get that he's a jazz fan and all, but is it that hard to find other kinds of songs out there?"

"I guess he just likes what song that disc has to offer." Danny assumed. "How much further do we got left Biggy?"

"Not too long, just about another few more minutes until we're back at the warehouse." Biggy replied.

A few minutes later, they drove right in front of the warehouse and they all got out.

"I'll take the disc to Z, you three may as well head on home." Biggy told the three.

"Ok well, until next time I suppose." Danny said bidding farewell.

As the three went their separate ways, Biggy took the transcription disc out of the bag and went under the trapdoor. As he was walking to his office, he notice some of Z's crew bringing in nearly four suitcases which he assumed were for Drew Hoble during the trade tomorrow night. He then continued walking up to to Z's office and knocked on his door.

"Who is it?" Z called out.

"It's Biggy."

"Oh, yea come on in."

As Biggy walked into Z's office, he immediately held out the case with the transcription disc in it.

"Fantastic!" Z shouted with joy, as he was given the case. "This is the transcription disc we were supposed to get right?"

"Sure as hell should be, it was the only one that said Animal Kingdom on it in the club."

"Well then I guess that means we'll be all set for tomorrow then." Z believed. "And you know what, I think I know just the mammals who will be handing this to them. After all, the first three already did their job at getting the disc, so it seems like they should be doing their share of this little gun trading mission as well. Otherwise their share of the work we're making them do will be lower. They all need to have an equal part in this, wouldn't you agree Biggy?"

"I suppose it's necessary enough." Biggy replied. "Let me remind you though Z, the last time they did a trade like this…. Lots of mammals were killed that night due to their lack of persuasion."

"I'm aware of that Biggy." Z assured. "But like any other mammal, wouldn't you say they deserve a chance to redeem themselves from that?"

A few minutes later after chatting a bit more with Z, he exited the bunker of the warehouse. As he was getting back in his van to go home, he was jump scared by the rabbit who was laying her foot on the side of his van.

"Is today the day?" Judy asked.

Biggy laughed. "You sure got the skills of a ninja to sneak up on me that easily. But why are you so concerned about it anyways? My life really isn't exciting as it sounds anyways."

"I, to admit it, I don't really know myself actually." Judy said hesitating. "It's just that so much has happened lately that I don't understand why someone like yourself would have worked for this zebra after so many years, and now wants to tamper with the organization."

"I wonder the same thing sometimes as well." Biggy said, as he sat down on the side of his van beside Judy. "But I guess I just find the timing with all of this that's been happening to be the perfect time. Let's see…. Where do I even start?"

* * *

As Nick opened the door to his apartment, he saw Amber laying on the couch watching some movies as she kept her eyes glued to the television, just like he left her.

"Y'know, there's more to life than watching TV." Nick said, as he put his keys on the kitchen counter.

"Well it's a long movie first of all, and second it's a good movie." Amber said disagreeing with him.

After Nick put away the rest of his belongings, he walked over to the couch and joined Amber on it.

"What are you watching?" Nick asked.

"Uh, some sort of a story about a deer who fly's on a dragon." Amber replied. "So anyways, what did Z tell you anything about my status? You remembered to ask right?"

Nick tried to think back on what Z told him. "Well all he knows or at least assumes is that you're back in Zootopia." Nick responded. "Do you have any idea about how he could have known that?"

Amber thought about it. "Well, there is one thing that comes to mind…. But it would be way too drastic of a measure just to know about my location."

Nick cocked an eyebrow. "Well what is it anyways?"

Amber sighed. "Do you remember the murder case of Duke Weaselton?"

Nick was unsure of where this was going. "Yea…."

"Well, Weaselton was a friend of mine back when I was just a teen." Amber explained. " _So_ we may have scammed and stole from a few mammals here and there, but back then us two really made a lot of money as a pair. We still kept in touch every now and then whenever a big idea for money making would come up to him. My parents obviously found out eventually and weren't very pleased with what I was doing. So I yelled at them and they later kicked me out. I ended up living with Weaselton for about a year or so until I was able to settle in an apartment. Anyways, when I came back to the city I tried to call him to see if I could stay with him for a few days while laying low from some dangerous criminals, but he refused saying that he doesn't want to be involved in a dangerous matter such as that."

"So you think Weaselton was confronted by Z and he fessed up about the call you gave him?"

"Well how was I supposed to know Z would confront him?" Amber asked, defending herself. "I didn't even think he would go to Weaselton to ask him about me in the first place."

"What about your parents then, do you think he went to them and did something?"

"Oh please I'm sure just by looking through the window, Z and crew are smart enough to know what concerned parents would look like. Basically it'd be obvious to know that they don't know where I am."

"Well is there anyone else that may come to mind that you think he will go to now?"

Amber sighed thinking about it. "Nothing that comes to my mind right now." She replied.

Nick laid back on his couch keeping his eyes on the TV as well.

"If he finds out about you being here, what do _you_ think he will do?" Nick asked.

Amber kept her eyes on the TV. "I don't know." she replied. "You'd think the obvious answer is putting a bullet in my head, but can't he see by now that I'm smart enough to not snitch on him?"

"You know Amber, I was thinking the same thing." Nick said. "That's why I asked him about it while I was on that topic, but he said now was not the time."

"So, then when is the time?"

"Do you think I would know?"

Amber giggled. "Probably not."

The two foxes continued to watch the movie, but both of them eventually fell asleep. Ten minutes later, Nick woke up from the sounds of the TV still going on in the background, but was surprised when he looked down to see Amber's head laying on Nick's lap as she was sleeping. Nick smiled and let it be as he continued watching until he went back to sleep.

* * *

It was eleven pm and Judy was still trying to go to sleep after she just came back from talking to Biggy, when suddenly her phone started ringing. As she got up to look at who was phoning, she was surprised to see the number 11323, the number for Z's crew phoning her. She took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Yes?" Judy asked silently.

 _"_ _It's Z this time."_ Z said while speaking on the phone. _"I'm just using my assistants phone to talk to you right now since most of the cell phones I have are out of battery."_

 _"_ Oh what joy that brings to me."

Z chuckled. _"Anyways, I am aware that you and Mr. Clawhauser were not able to take part in the transcription disc theft your three friends did earlier this evening. So what I've decided, in order to keep all of you even in my books is for you two to do the trade."_

Judy had a feeling he would be calling for that reason. "Are you sure you want us two to be doing that?" Judy asked. "Have you forgotten about what happened last time?"

" _Yes Biggy said the same thing to me."_ Z mentioned. _"But I told him that like any other mammal, they deserve a chance to redeem themselves."_

Judy sighed. "So then what's the plan here?"

" _Well the deal will be taking place tomorrow at exactly 7:30 pm."_ Z explained. _"You and your friend will be meeting us at the warehouse at around six to seven don't forget. From there you will take the case of weapons, drive out to the location along with a few of my crew members and exchange cases with Drew Hoble himself. After the exchange has been made, Drew including his own mammals will be going their separate ways just like we will to. Once the money has been delivered to the warehouse, you may go back home."_

"And where exactly will we be doing this trade might you add?"

 _"_ _The Cliffside Asylum."_

Judy was surprised. _"The Cliffside Asylum?"_ She thought. " _That's the place where we found all those missing mammals in the Night Howlers case, why would we be doing it there?"_

"Now I might not be much of a criminal Z, but that doesn't exactly sound like a place where any mammal can just pop in and do a serious trade such as what you're discussing with me right now."

 _"_ _And I would agree a hundred percent on you with that one, even for a mammal like yourself."_ Z admitted. _"Still, this is the location Drew Hoble picked for us to go to. And if I were to ask him something like why we would be going to that certain location, he'll think we don't trust him enough to be doing the trade with him. Now I don't want to give off a bad impression to him with just silly questions, so I just simply don't ask any."_

"Well, do you trust him?"

Z paused for a moment. "….. _Just be at the warehouse by around six to seven tomorrow and await further details."_ Z reminded. _"And don't forget to bring the uniform and….. Materials that you were given earlier. we still don't want anyone to know about you and your friends being a part in all of this. We will be contacting your friend_ Clawhauser _about this later as well, but for now worry about yourself and being at the warehouse on time tomorrow. Goodnight."_ He said before hanging up the phone.

Judy exhaled deeply as she put her phone back on the desktop as she hopped back into bed. She knew she needed the rest this time, especially if she would be doing something tomorrow that meant big for Z.

* * *

October 3rd, 2016, the next day

Both Judy and Clawhauser left early from the ZPD to prepare for wanted to go with them to make sure they were okay at the warehouse to do the trade, but he stayed around to make sure it wasn't too suspicious for so many officers to be leaving for the same reason, which was that they just weren't feeling very well.

Judy then put all the things she needed in one of her backpacks, got on the train and went to the warehouse. By the time she got there, there were already a few vans parked outside along with the trapdoor already open wide. She assumed someone already opened it for her so she stepped inside and went down into the bunker. When she got down there, she could already see some mammals armed and ready for the trade along with Clawhauser.

"Ah, you made it!" Z said turning around facing Judy. "Well we're all ready to go so get your stuff on cause you'll be going back upstairs soon. You will be going with some of my crew as well for backup. that gerbil Trevor, that horse Sylvia, that goat Fred, and your friend Clawhauser. Once you make contact with Drew Hoble, you will give him these four cases." He explained, as he was pointing to them. "And once you get the case with the money, make sure it's all there before you leave so we know they aren't cheating on us. If they are, thing might get nasty so you should draw your guns on them if they threaten you as well. Otherwise it will be like playing with fire on those guys. Are we clear Miss Hopps?"

"Crystal." Judy replied with her arms crossed.

"Marvelous then." Z said "Now put your stuff on, grab one of those cases and get in the van Sylvia's waiting by. Just a reminder though, you will be the only one with a cell phone there for emergencies only since if this does somehow go wrong, we wouldn't want anyone to know about any of the phone numbers. So try not to lose yours if you can. And for goodness sakes, do not make this turn out like the last time you did a trade."

"Wait hold on, why isn't Biggy driving us this time?" Judy asked. "I mean usually he would be the one to drive us to wherever we end up going"

"Well you are right I would've used Biggy as a driver for this, but I am unable to have him do that tonight." Z said. "I checked my calendar for tonight about who wasn't available, and I realized Biggy wasn't for tonight since he was going out to dinner with his kids. Anyways it doesn't matter, chop chop, we need to get this show on the road."

Judy nodded to Z and went to take out her clothing and materials. Once she had them all on her, she picked up one of the cases and walk back up to the entrance of the warehouse.

"Put it in the back and hop on in." Sylvia told Judy.

Judy did what she was told and put the case in the back of the van. As she was about to head in herself, she saw Clawhauser coming towards to van as well. None of them said anything to each other when she was approached by him, but Judy decided to speak up a few moments later.

"You nervous?" She asked.

Clawhauser stared at Judy. "Well Judy, we're about to do something in which last time we screwed up on. And then because of that screw up, mammals died, and us and our friends nearly met the same fate. And now if we don't do this right, one of our relatives may just as well be ending up like Nick's mother. So yea, I'm nervous."

As Clawhauser hopped into the van, Judy paused for a moment as she also realized what horrible things would be coming down the road if they didn't do this right.

"Hey rabbit, get the hell into the van already we don't have all day!" Trevor shouted.

Judy then snapped back into reality while shaking her head trying to focus and hopped into the van.

The drives in the vans were never a great feeling for Judy. Every time since the last few months until now that she drove in one, it never meant anything good. In the meantime, she tried to go to her happy place. But every time she tried, the memories of everything terrible that has happened that was right in front of her keeps on fading back. The last thing she wanted was to have more of those horrible memories stuck in her mind.

As she looked out the window of the van, she saw that it started to get darker out while they were driving to the Asylum. It wasn't quite the kind of time she would feel comfortable with doing a trade like this, but her mind still told her to suck it up.

Clawhauser on the other hand was terrified and nervous at the same time, even if he doesn't show it. He thought just the idea of going to a creepy old abandoned Asylum was bad enough. But now that he would be doing something in there that would be risking him and his relatives' lives for, he wasn't even sure if he could handle this situation. Especially after what he had to do to two of Z's mammals back at the park just to save his own life.

Both their paws were shaking by what they were about to be walking themselves into, but they tried to stay calm and hide it since they didn't want to have a bad impression on some of Z's mammals that they were with currently in the van.

Finally, they arrived at the Asylum. Just like Clawhauser expected, the vibe he was feeling when he saw the Cliffside Asylum building by looking out the window was not one he wanted to be feeling right now.

"Alright, zip your hoodies up to your face, turn your voice changing collars on, make sure your weapons are loaded and lets head on inside." Fred said, making sure Judy and Clawhauser were ready.

Once Judy and Clawhauser did what they were told, they opened the back van door and hopped out. But when they hopped out, they noticed a handful of other vans on the other side of the street out in the distance.

 **"** **Wow, this Drew Hoble guy sure means business if he brought this many guards with him."** Judy said with her and Clawhauser voice changing collars turned on, as well as their hoodies zipped up all the way to their faces.

 **"** **But why aren't they parked by the entrance?"** Clawhauser asked. **"There's only one other van parked over here, yet the rest are out all the way over there, in a shaded looking spot?"**

Judy shrugged. **"Maybe it just never occurred to them that they could park over here where it's closer instead of over there."**

"Hey you two, let's move!" Fred shouted.

Judy sighed. **"Come on Clawhauser, let's get this over with."** She said, as she began walking to the entrance door.

But Clawhauser stood there still be suspicious of those vans. _"I might need to keep a closer eye out than I thought while I'm in here."_ Clawhauser thought, as he slowly followed Judy to the entrance. One thing was for sure in both Judy's and Clawhauser's mind right now. That this could either go extremely well, or horribly wrong.

* * *

1 and a half hours earlier.

Nick was just finishing up the rest of his paperwork in his workspace and was packing up to go home with his shift being nearly over. Before Judy left, he met her at the entrance just before she left. He tried to keep her positive about tonight by giving her encouraging words and trying to point out that it was simply a fast get in get out job. However, Judy still didn't seem to be cheered up as well as he thought she would because right after he tried to reason with her, she walked out of the ZPD without saying a word to Nick.

As he was walking down the stairs and to the entrance of the ZPD, a large group of swats walking out of the entrance caught his eye. But what caught his eye in particular was that they were armed with real guns.

"Hey Higgins!" Nick called out, as Officer Higgins was exiting the bullpen along with the swat team.

"Yea Wilde?" Higgins asked.

"Well I couldn't help but notice the large group of swats exiting the building." Nick replied. "What's that all about?"

"Well, you know about those strings of missing mammals and murder cases that have been connected to the use of guns?"

"I'm aware yes…" Nick said, unsure of where this was going once the conversation of guns were being involved.

"Well we believe to have gotten a huge lead on it." Higgins said. "Do you know a rabbit by the name of Drew Hoble?"

Nick's whole body froze after hearing that name. _"How do the ZPD know about him?"_ He thought. He wasn't sure whether this meant good or bad for him, Judy, Clawhauser, Finnick and Danny, but he already had butterflies in his stomach thinking about it.

" _Nick…._ NICK?" Higgins said loudly, as he tried to get Nick's attention after dozing off.

"U-uh yea, that Drew Hoble rabbit that owns the icarrot phone company in Zootopia what about him?" Nick asked tuning back into reality.

"Well he's given off a tip for us about a gun trade going down tonight at the Cliffside Asylum that he will be taking part of." Higgins explained. "Apparently the only reason he's making a trade with them is so the ZPD can catch whoever is manufacturing and using those weapons. We got a few mammals scouting it out already at the Cliffside Asylum, but there hasn't been anything reported just yet. Anyways, I need to go outside to make sure the swat team is where they should be for this mission so I'll see you around."

"O-okay yea sure, I'll, I'll see you around..."

As Higgins walked away, Nick had a horrified expression on him. He knew this could be a good thing at having Z's organization possibly shut down, but he also knew Judy and Clawhauser were taking a part in that trade and it could get them in danger at the same time. So he immediately took his phone out to call Z, but right away realized his phone was out of battery. Instinctively, as soon as Higgins and any other nearby officers were out of sight, he immediately bolted out of the ZPD and went to the nearest phone booth so he could warn Z about the encounter.

Right now nothing else was on his mind but telling Z about what was about to happen. He knew if Judy and Clawhauser were to get caught, Z would most likely do something bad to them, others or even himself. A few minutes later, he reached a booth after sprinting to it without thinking.

He was so shaky about what was about to possibly happen, he dropped some of the coins while he was putting them in the booth slot. While he was putting them in the slot, he made sure no one was around to hear the call. He then dialed 11323, the number to Z's organization and prayed that he would pick up.

* * *

While the five mammals have already gone to the Asylum to do the trade, the rest of Z's crew were celebrating in the warehouse for the profit the organization would be getting from this deal. Even Z eventually joined the guys and had a few beers with them. However, their celebration was cut short when Z's assistant pig Britney entered the room.

"Uh excuse me Z?" Britney called out.

Z turned to Britney's direction after hearing his name called. "Yes, what is it Britney?"

"There seems to be a phone call for you." She replied. "Apparently it's urgent."

"Well who is it that's saying it's apparently urgent currently?" Z asked. "Because I'm sure it can wait another time."

"Actually, it's Mr. Wilde sir."

Z raised an eyebrow. _"Why would Mr. Wilde be phoning us at this time?"_ He thought. _"The timing for his apparently urgent call also seems to be a little too perfect, considering those five left not too long ago to do the trade. In fact, they're probably already there by now."_

He sighed. "Alright, but this better be important. I'll be back in a sec guys!" He shouted.

Z then made his way downstairs into the bunker and picked up the phone by the front desk.

"This is Z speaking, what is it you need Mr. Wilde?"

 _"_ _Z!"_ Nick shrieked. _"Okay listen to me Z there isn't much time. You have to call off the gun trade right now!"_

Z laughed. "Call it off, have you been drinking too much tonight Mr. Wilde? This is one of the biggest trades we've had this entire year and you want us to just slip away from it?"

 _"_ _No, you don't understand Z!"_ Nick argued. _"If this trade goes down tonight, your business may be going down tonight!"_

Z was shocked after hearing those words. "What, what are you talking about Mr. Wilde?"

 _"_ _I just heard from an officer at the ZPD who's saying that they heard about some sort of gun trade going down at the Cliffside Asylum from the rabbit your trading with, Drew Hoble!"_

"WHAT?!" Z said loudly.

 _"_ _So you need to call off the trade right now before it's too late!"_

Z realized now that he had no choice but to do call it off. He hung up the phone, went to his office to get one of the many cell phones he had for separate mammals and dialed the number to Judy's phone.

* * *

It felt like the largest number of stairs for Judy and Clawhauser as they were still feeling nervous about the trade while they were walking up the stairs to it. Suddenly, Judy's phone started ringing.

 _"_ _Is that who I think it is…."_ Judy thought.

Sure enough, it was who she thought it was. Still being unsure of what the call was about, she answered it. **"Yes Z, what is it?"**

 _"_ _Miss Hopps this is an emergency."_ Z said in a serious tone. _"You need… get…. Of….. before-!"_

 **"Hello, hello?"** Judy said into the phone, before hearing a beep sound as she realized the call had ended. **"Damn it, the connection in this building must be pretty bad. It's interrupting with my signal so I couldn't understand what Z was trying to tell me."**

"Whatever carrot face, it doesn't matter right now." Trevor said. "You can phone him again once we get back outside, but for now let's just get this trade over with for this Drew Hoble guy."

Judy sighed. **"Alright, it's just that I worry it really is important."**

Sylvia chuckled. "Then you worry too much."

The five then continued climbing up the stairs until they reached the floor they were supposed to be at for the trade. When they reached the room they would be meeting, all five of them nodded at each other signifying that they were ready to go inside. Fred took a deep breath, put his paw on the handle and slid the door open.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 18, Storms Are Coming This Way**


	19. Storms Are Coming This Way

**I don't know how many people have noticed this by now, but the way I have thought of naming my chapters is a tiny bit different than most of the other Zootopia fanficitons out there. Can you find the pattern? Now then, the moment you've all been waiting for...**

 **Chapter 18: Storms Are Coming This Way**

October 2nd, 2016, yesterday

"I'm a father, you know." Biggy said, as he was talking to Judy about his motives behind tampering with Z's organization. They knew someone would possibly be overhearing their conversation at the warehouse, so they went into Biggy's van and drove to one of the benches a few streets further.

"Yes, I'm aware of that." Judy replied. "I read your profiles remember? Heck, I could even tell you things about Z even you probably don't know."

"I doubt it." Biggy said disagreeing. "At least I think whatever he's been telling me is true."

"I wouldn't hold your breath on it."

Biggy chuckled. "Everybody in this entire city thinks there's no danger they'll ever need to be worried about. Well if they think that, then they obviously don't know anything about the city no matter how long they have been here for. So right when everyone encounters one tiny bit of suspicion with danger down on jolly times road, nobody will ever think of this place as a safe haven ever again. Just one little mess up and the herds of animals will be going off like a sped up cheetah. And then finally you five come along to mess it all up."

"…"

"Everything was going fine with this business, until the encounter with you five, months ago. The trades, the weapons, the suspicions, everything was all under control and for _years_ and years to come. But now that all of you have been making mess up after mess up, this city may no longer be safe from danger anymore. That includes my two boys whether I like it or not."

"Then why continue to be working for someone if you know the possible consequences to it?"

"In the end, it all came down to the money." Biggy replied. "My boys are aware of what I do, my wife obviously was the first to find out, and they always do. It's also the main reason why she divorced me in the first place. But every time I thought I could have a good job with a good house to keep my family living and not surviving, it always just crumbled down. And that was twenty years ago. After I met Z though, it all turned around positively. But even though all those problems went away afterward, new ones started to come up immediately. You see, that's the pain in the tail about having relationships. It means you really do got something to lose."

"At least you have mammals to be there for you during a rough time." Judy said. "Believe me, I know that well enough by now."

Biggy kept his eyes on the ground as he sighed. "I've…. I've done some selfish things in my life that I'm not very proud of. Looking back at all the mammals I've killed for him, it makes me wonder if it was really worth it in the end just to put a good meal on my family's table. And it's not just me doing these things, it's the entire crew of Z's business who's doing all these terrible sins as well. For all of us, it all came down to making money. That's probably how Z gets us to do what he wants, no matter the request."

Judy also kept her eyes on the ground as she clenched her hands together. "Everybody has done something they're not proud of Biggy. Mammals like that in most cases don't think about what they're doing or planning on doing, so they just do it. _Those_ are mammals like you and me."

Biggy stared at Judy for a brief moment before leaning back on the bench. "You're probably right though rabbit, I really don't think about it most of the time. But back onto the main question here, you're probably wondering why I want his business to end. But to be perfectly frank, it really is what you'd expect it to be."

"Oh really." Judy said not fully believing him. "Then why don't you tell me what you think I'd expect it to be?"

"The future." Biggy replied. "What I see that the future is holding for this criminal business is nothing but lives lost. Could be a competition, could be leaders, could be witnesses, could be his own mammals, could even be my family but it doesn't matter. The way I see it, it's just going to continue on and on until they're caught."

"So basically you want to stop his business so no more mammals will have to die?"

Biggy paused for a moment. He then stood up and stretched his arms while exhaling. "Yep, that pretty much sums it up." He replied. "Anyhow, it has been a nice chat, but I need to head on home to get some sleep for tomorrow. Oh but before I go, there's something I wanted to give you."

"Give me?"

Biggy dug through one of his side pockets and took out a slip of paper holding it out to Judy. She wasn't sure what was on that piece of paper, but she took it anyway. When she unfolded it, separate numbers were on it.

"What do these numbers mean?" Judy asked.

"Those are GPS coordinates." Biggy replied. "Around the time, I wrote it down because I thought it would come in handy. However, I think it would be more suitable for you to deal with it now."

Judy was confused. "Where would this be taking me to?"

Biggy paused for a moment. "It's where you'll find Bucky." He replied silently. "I was a little rushed to deal with it since I sort of... forgot to dispose of it after that night. Do whatever you want with it, show it to the ZPD even, I don't care. But make sure you use it wisely, otherwise another mess up might just happen."

* * *

October 3rd, 2016, present time

Fred took a deep breath, put his paw on the handle and slid the door open. Inside, the first thing the five noticed was Drew Hoble along with a hippo and a tiger as bodyguards with their paws behind their backs. All five of them entered the room in silence while carrying the four cases filled with weapons.

"What in the hell is this fiasco right here?" Drew asked. "Listen, I know Z or whatever his name is said there would be two masked people here, but two mammals with a microphone and a carrot on their face? That's a little over-dramatic for my taste."

 **"** **Typical questions like that have never ended well."** Judy whispered to Clawhauser with her voice changing collar turned on, while Clawhauser exhaled deeply after hearing that from Judy.

"Besides, everybody else's faces aren't covered besides those two. What makes them so special?" Drew asked pointing to them.

"This is just a precaution." Sylvia replied. "When it comes to these two, we're taking extreme precautions with their identities, at least for their sake. After all, you never know a rat until you see one."

Drew laughed. "Alright, just show us the weapons."

The mammals then held out the four briefcases filled with the weapons he asked for.

"Alright, you can see them. Now where's the money?"

Drew turned his head to the tiger body guard and nodded at him. The tiger then held up another briefcase that he was holding behind him.

"We'll be sending one mammal to your side and you shall send one to ours to make sure everything is there, and so they can retrieve it." Drew explained to the other side.

Sylvia nodded. "Carrot face, you go and check. You're good with math aren't ya?"

Judy shook her head while crossing her arms. **"For the record, it's multiplication mostly."** She replied while putting her head down. **"But alright I'll do it."**

Judy slowly walked towards Drew and his mammals while Drew's hippo bodyguard did the same thing, but to Z's mammals. It had been a bit less than a minute until each of them got to the other side as both sides observed each other very thoroughly. Judy took the case from the tiger and opened it to make sure all of it was there, while the tiger checked to make sure all the weapons were in the case.

"Well, is it _confirmed_ Jared?" Drew called out to the hippo.

Jared finished checking the final case and closed it. "Yea, it's confirmed."

Trevor laughed. "Confirmed? Well you don't have to say it like that. You can just say 'Yea, it's all good' or something."

Drew then turned his head to the tiger and nodded once more. The tiger took out a walkie talkie and started speaking through it.

Trevor first noticed the walkie talkie he took out of his pocket. "Hey hey wait a minute, what's with the walkie talkie there tiger?"

"Just take it _easy._ " Drew said. "He's just contacting one of my guys by the entrance to get ready."

Trevor wasn't quite sure what that meant. "Ready for what?"

"Oh nothing, he's just telling him to get the car started that's all."

Trevor wasn't fully convinced in his mind, but he let it slip for now. "Okay. Carrot face how's it looking, is everything there?"

Judy finished counting the last few bills before responding. **"Yep, it's all in here."**

"Okay, bring it over."

As Judy got up while picking up the case and walking back over with it, the tiger started speaking to the mammal on the other end.

"The exchange has happened." The tiger whispered before he put the walkie talkie back in his pocket.

"Alright Jared, bring the cases over."

Jared then picked up all four of the cases and walked back over to Drew and the tiger, while Judy was walking back over to Z's mammal's side with the money. Once the cases were brought over to Drew's side, he opened up one of the cases.

"Well I'm glad we were able to do this cleanly." Fred said, as the five were starting to walk back out the door with the case of money.

"Yea, about that…" Drew said, as he took out one of the pistols from the case. "I hate to break it to you like this, but things aren't going to work as clean as you thought it would be." He said as he pointed the gun at the five mammals while his bodyguards took guns from the case as well.

Most of the five weren't too sure how to think about this, or why this was happening. "Drew, what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Sylvia shrieked. "Is this some kind of a joke? Because it's not funny!"

"Isn't it obvious?" Drew replied. "I'm not letting you guys leave this place hands free, you'll most likely be leaving this place with cuffs on them, or with a blanket over you if you don't behave. We're mostly just here to stall before the police arrive to arrest you all."

"Woah, woah, WHAT?!" Trevor yelled. "You dirty little rabbit, did you snitch on us?! You of all people snitched on us?!"

"I wouldn't call it snitching, I'd call it doing a deed to the city!" Drew shouted back.

Fred then started to hear sirens coming from outside as he saw a glimpse of red and blue lights from the windows outside the building.

"AW HELL NO!" Sylvia shouted, as she quickly drew her gun also hearing the sirens.

Trevor and Fred followed her as they took out their guns as well, but both Judy and Clawhauser froze and stood still while still being unsure of what to do.

"Well it looks like we're at a standoff now huh?" Drew said. "It doesn't matter, the police will be here soon anyways. And either way for you guys, storms are coming this way. And just like how Mother Nature works, you can't stop it from coming."

* * *

"SNAP!" went a cell phone, as Z snapped the cell phone he was using to phone Drew so they couldn't track where the anonymous calls came from.

"I hate it when I have to keep using and breaking different phones all the time." Z mumbled. "And of course they're at a place with bad connection, maybe that's why Drew picked that place..."

"Z sir!" A mammal cried out.

"What is it Johnny?" Z asked, as he and most of the other crew members were still panicking inside the bunker.

"We just got word from Lewis at the ZPD."

"And?"

"Fred, Trevor, Sylvia, those mammals from the ZPD you got working for you Hopps and Clawhauser, they're inside the building."

"Did the police make contact with them yet?"

"Not yet, but they say they're preparing to once one of Drew's guys calls them to say the exchange has happened."

"Damn it all to hell." Z mumbled. "Wilde really was right about the ambush from the ZPD after all. If they catch those five with the weapons…. Look it doesn't matter right now." He said shaking his head. "Is there any word yet on what's happening inside?"

"Nothing yet, but if we're lucky they'd be having their paws on the trigger for safety right now."

"God, do you realize what this could mean for us?!" Z yelled. "For me?!"

"A lot of things can happen Z that can simply just mean a minor setback."

"And there also some major setbacks here, and one of them could mean the end of my business here!" Z continued to shout. "I mean we would even be considered _lucky_ if none of us were thrown in the slammer after tonight! Johnny, do you realize how much evidence they may have after tonight? The weapons in those suitcases, the money, the potential witnesses left behind afterwards?"

"And all of that can be taken care of, can't it?" Johnny asked. "Remember that highway incident all those years ago? There was so much evidence on all of us, but we all got away with it Scott free!"

"Well back then we knew mammals at the ZPD that we could trust to take care of it and weren't so naïve, unlike those three furry idiots we got right now. But guess what? THEY'RE DEAD."

"Hey, car crashes happen all the time." Johnny said. "They were just the unlucky ones that day."

"Look my point is I don't think we'll be able to get out of this one this time." Z said, still being unable to stay still. "I don't know maybe, just maybe if we were to pull a few strings on some things, then maybe this could only turn into a minor setback at most like you said."

"Well is there any other option you can think of?"

"Pfffft, I wish." Z replied. "Johnny I know I'm good with stuff like this most of the time, but when it comes to a scenario like this, even I know myself I'm not that good.

"UPDATE!" One of the shouted. Most of the mammals ran straight towards him to hear what it was. "Okay, I just got off the phone with Lewis, and apparently multiple shots have been fire inside the building."

"Well isn't this just dandy." One of the mammals said. "All of us are basically screwed now Z."

"Hey, that can mean a lot of things though Harvey." Z said disagreeing.

"But there's mostly one logical explanation for it Z." Johnny said. "Obviously somebody fired a shot and everything went nuts. Our guys must have probably figured out there were cops there and questioned about it to Drew and his guys, and then they all drew on each other. But it's hard to tell how things are turning out right now for them."

"But our side must have won, we outnumber them with weapons don't we?" One of the mammals asked.

"Not unless they were able to get weapons of their own." Z replied walking away, while the rest continued to bicker on the position they were all in.

* * *

"Why in hell are you doing this anyways?!" Sylvia shouted back at Drew.

"It's quite simple actually." Drew replied still having his gun locked onto the five. "I've loveed this city ever since I was born into it. I've always loved the way we lived in it, the diversity of this place to such incredible measures, and most of all, the mammals of this city and how we can all live together. It's not supposed to be a place for surviving, it's supposed to be a place for living! Back in the day when I had your boss do some stuff for me, it never caused any harm to Zootopia. But the way I've been looking at the news lately, you mammals are just turning this place into a damn warzone! That's not the Zootopia that I knew!"

"Carrot, microphone face, we're gonna need you two to get out of here now." Fred told Judy and Clawhauser.

 **"** **What?"** Judy said in disagreement. **"But Fred we can't just-!"**

"We're not going to just let anyone know who you guys are in a silly showdown like this, or else this entire thing will be compromised anyways!" Fred shouted back. "Now take the case of money and get out of here before the cops arrive."

Judy and Clawhauser both started to panic, not being sure what to do. Even if they leave, they weren't sure where or how they would get away from the cops.

Judy tried to reason with Fred. **"Look Fred we don't even know where to-!"**

"I said NOW!" Fred yelled in annoyance.

Without any more hesitation, Judy picked up the case and ran out the door with Clawhauser following.

 **"** **Hurry up!"** Judy called out to Clawhauser as they were running across the hallway.

 **"** **Wait Judy, hold on a second!"** Clawhauser called out.

Judy stopped. **"What is it?"**

 **"** **Okay, remember when you told me about the part in the night howlers case where you were in this Asylum?"**

 **"** **Yea, what about it?"**

 **"** **Well you said you were trapped inside, but you were still luckily able to come out of there."** Clawhauser explained. **"So how were you able to get out with all that security around?"**

Judy then had an idea. **"Sweet cheese and crackers that's it Clawhauser!"** She said, as she was running back to the stairs. **"Follow me, I have an idea!"**

Clawhauser paused for a moment still hesitating to follow her. **"Am I going to like this escape plan of yours Judy?"**

 **"** **Well if you're not the biggest fan of heights, then probably not."** Judy replied. **"But it's either that or-!"**

" _BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!"_ Went the sounds of gunfire coming from the room with Drew and Z's mammals until it finally stopped.

 **"Come on, we need to hurry this up."** Judy requested after hearing the gunshots. **"Follow me, we're going upstairs. Oh one more thing, do you still have those plastics bags from the snacks you were eating earlier in the van?"**

 **"** **Uh, yea they're right here."** Clawhauser replied holding out the plastic bags. Judy then snatched them from Clawhauser's paws and put them in her pocket. **"But what do we need them for anyways?"**

 **"** **Oh you'll see."** She replied.

* * *

"I said NOW!" Fred yelled in annoyance.

Without any more hesitation, Judy picked up the case and ran out the door with Clawhauser following. The door was then slid closed, but everyone in the room still had their guns locked onto the opposite side to them.

Drew chuckled. "It doesn't matter where they go now. The ZPD will be here any minute to catch whoever those two are anyways. Now then, where was I…"

"Look we could care less about your little story Hoble, now put your guns down slowly and we'll work this out like professionals would usually eh?" Sylvia requested.

Just then, Drew's bodyguards took clicked their guns taking the safety off. It was another way of saying they weren't going to follow a thing Sylvia or Trevor and Fred were telling them to.

"Ah yes." Drew said, remembering where he left off. "I'm just putting things back to the way they were. When I recalled an old annonymous helper of mine back in the day that had a business involving weapons, I knew immediately it was my chance to be the hero! I wanted to be the one who would bring peace back to the city just like it always was, not all sorts of incidents from numerous counts of missing mammals to the mammals shot dead everywhere in Zootopia! And for me, I'm not just going to lay back and-!"

"BANG!" Went Sylvia's gun, after having heard enough.

Drew Hoble then fell to the ground with a shot to the head.

"NOOOO!" Yelled one of the bodyguards.

Drew's tiger bodyguard then pointed the gun at Sylvia and opened fire.

"BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!"

Sylvia then fell to the ground, while Jared immediately started shooting at Trevor and Fred as they had been doing the same to them. Trevor was hit and killed instantly by the bullet while Fred repeatedly shot at the hippo's head until he dropped to the ground as well. Fred then began shooting at the tiger until he was all out of bullets. When he ran out, the tiger had collapsed as well. Fred paused to breath for a moment and slowly walked towards the tiger to make sure he was dead. But to his surprise, the tiger leaned upwards and held his gun up.

"BANG!"

He shot Fred straight in the head.

The tiger then dropped his gun and layed on the floor gasping for air. He slowly got up trying to keep his body steady after being shot once in the arm, being shot multiple times in the chest but having his vest protect him from the shots, and having been grazed by a bullet on the side of his waist.

He checked for any vital signs on the hippo bodyguard Jared, but nothing was felt. He made his way to the door, but before he could get to the door, another mammal on the other side slid it open.

 _"This is the Zootopia police!"_ The swat mammal shouted with his mask on. _"Put your hands in the air, or we will use force if necessary!"_

"It's okay, he's with us!" Another swat mammal shouted from behind, as he was coming into the room. "Sweet merry mother of…" He said looking at the aftermath of the incident. "Damien, what in tarnation's happened here? You were supposed to just keep them here until we got here, not shoot up the entire room!"

"Sorry Mchorn…." Damien said still panting while keeping pressure on his arm. "It's just, that horse over there started the shooting when Drew was trying to buy you all some time by talking to them, but she shot him before he could finish what he was saying. And then after that, they all went crazy and started firing all over the place! Me and Jared were able to get them, but Jared didn't make it in the end."

"Okay well we will continue to discuss this later but for now, you need medical attention. Pawson, bring a medic over to the entrance for him."

"Yes sir." Pawson replied as he went back downstairs.

"Hold on guys, there's still something you need to know." Damien informed to them.

"What is it Damien?" Mchorn asked.

"There's still two mammals left somewhere in the building currently." Damien said. "They fled with the money after things started heat up with us and those mammals."

"Hmm, well if what you're saying is true, then we're going to have to search this place from tip to toe if we never bumped into them on the stairs while we were walking up." Mchorn said. "Higgin's, take Damien downstairs to get medical attention, Francine, Anderson, you two check this floor and make sure no one is getting down those stairs on your watch. Johnson, Simmels, Chang, Lawliet and Welldon, you five check the bottom floors. As for me, Wolfard, Snarlov and Delgato, We'll check the upper floors. Alright, let's move mammals!"

* * *

"Come on, just a few more steps Clawhauser!" Judy said, as she took off hers and Clawhauser's voice changing collars and put them in the plastic bags along with Judy's phone.

"I know…." Clawhauser replied panting. "It's just…. I've never…. really went up…. So many stairs before…."

"Wait shhh!" Judy said shushing Clawhauser.

"What is it?" Clawhauser asked whispering.

Judy continued to listen and heard something coming from downstairs. "Footsteps…" She replied. "Oh no, the ZPD are coming up the stairs Clawhauser, Hurry up!"

Clawhauser then started to climb up the stair like a cheetah would, now that the ZPD were literally right on their tails. Once Clawhauser reached the top with Judy, she kicked the door open to the roof and closed it once more to buy them some time. The sky was nearly pitch black as she ran over to see what the front entrance looked like for escaping.

"We can't even climb down to get out of the front entrance now Clawhauser, there's too many police _and_ police cars crowding it." Judy said notifying Clawhauser.

"So what now then?" Clawhauser asked.

"I hate to say it, but now we're going to have to jump."

"WHAT, ARE YOU INSANE?!" Clawhauser squealed. "You do realize that's at least a thirty story drop right?!"

"Hey me and Nick were able to do it without a scratch when we jumped down that waterfall!" Judy said trying to calm him down. "So it shouldn't be a problem for you either."

"Judy, please tell me there is another option, please?"

"Well the other option is getting caught by the ZPD and having them and Z on our tails until were-!" Judy then swiped her paw around her neck signifying that they will probably die.

Even so, Clawhauser for a second still did think about surrendering. And when Judy saw that expression on his face while he thought about it, she started to become agitated.

"Clawhauser, WE'RE DOING THIS." Judy said in a booming tone.

"A-a-alright fine!" Clawhauser said stomping his feet.

"Trust me, it will only be a few seconds and then you can open your eyes once you're out of the water."

Clawhauser shakenly nodded to Judy as he was scared out of his mind to do this drop.

Both of them then went over to the ledge of the building and slowly stepped onto it.

"Alright, on the count of three, we drop." Judy said.

"Are you sure it can't be ten Judy?" Clawhauser asked.

Suddenly, loud banging was heard on the door to the roof as someone was trying to open it.

"Yea I'm pretty sure!" She exclaimed. "Alright one, two…."

Clawhauser's entire body started to shake. "Judy I don't know if I can-!"

"THREE!" She yelled, as she jumped while holding onto Clawhauser's paw forcing him to jump over as well.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 19, Closing Time**


	20. Closing Time

**Chapter 19: Closing Time**

"What do you mean everything went berserk Nick?" Finnick asked, as him, Danny and Nick were nearly at Z's warehouse in the rainforest district to know about Judy and Clawhauser's status.

"Well that's all I heard at the ZPD before I left Finnick." Nick replied. "When I heard that about that shootout inside the building on the news and at least five were killed including Drew Hoble, I figured I may as well call you guys about it so we could come over here to see what Z knows about it at least. If Judy and Clawhauser were killed or caught, wouldn't you think their names would be all over the news by now if Drew's was?"

"Okay, while it's a possibility Nick, but that doesn't mean you should keep your hopes up." Finnick said. "Besides, there were probably multiples cops at the scene blocking the only road they could've escaped from. I'm pretty sure someone would've seen two odd figures like them walking by!"

"Well I know one way since we did it last time in order to escape, but Clawhauser couldn't have fit through the toilets." Nick replied. "They must have done it in a different way maybe…"

"Your thoughts are getting to you too much right now Nick." Danny said. "How about we just hear about the situation from Z before we come to a conclusion about what happened to them, does that sound okay to you fellas?"

"Alright fine." Nick said. "Come on then, the warehouse should be just up here."

Once they reached the warehouse, they were already surprised to see so many vans and cars parked at the front.

 _"_ _Wow, I know this is a serious situation for Z, but I never expected basically his entire crew to show up to here."_ Nick thought.

Once they walked into the trapdoor, they started to overhear numerous voices coming from downstairs. When they opened the door, everyone was all in the front of the room standing by a stage. Soon enough, one of the bears noticed them Nick, Finnick and Danny coming into the room.

"What the hell are you three doing here?" The bear asked.

"Probably the same reason as everyone else here." Nick replied. "You're not the only ones who watch the news around here if you haven't noticed already. Besides, we're more concerned about the status of our friends than worrying about what's happening next to Z's _masterpiece_ of a business. But why is everyone gathered over here anyways?"

"Z texted all of us saying he would be making a few emergency announcements regarding the business due to the incident that happened at that asylum." The bear explained. "We're all waiting for him to come out of his office to say those annoucements."

Suddenly, the Door to Z's office opened and out came Z.

"Speak of the devil." Danny said.

As he was walking to the stage, a few of the mammals in the audience already started shouting out questions to him.

 _"_ _Z, is it true that Sylvia, Trevor and Fred were all killed?!"_ One of them shouted as more continued to do the same. _"Is the business going into the drain?! Are we all going to jail?! What are these announcements you have for us that requires all of us to be here?!"_

Once Z got to the stage, he yelled out, "QUIET!"

All of the mammals immediately stopped talking once Z yelled at them to.

"If you don't mind, I would like to make my announcements now." Z said. "Now I'm sure most of you know about the incident that happened at the asylum earlier this evening. But for those that aren't fully aware, I will be giving a brief explanation of it. And hopefully it may answer some of the questions you might have regarding it."

 _"_ _Hopefully indeed."_ Nick thought.

"At the time of six to seven pm earlier, we ordered five mammals from our crew to travel to the Cliffside Asylum in order to make a big weapons trade that involved a lot of cash coming from it. But after hearing from a mammal we have at the ZPD under our control Nicholas Wilde, we learned that the buyer Drew Hoble and his guards turned out to be bait for us to come inside the building while the cops could catch the mammals we sent. We then sent our giraffe Lewis over to the ZPD to overhear any new information regarding this with Mr. Wilde being unable to stay without being suspicious. He informed me that three of our crew members were killed, along with Drew and one of his bodyguards. However, the other bodyguard managed to survive and is currently in the ZPD for questioning, and will most likely be going into witness protection for the time being. As for the two on our side whom are among the mammals we are forcing to work for us for the time being, Judy Hopps and Benjamin Clawhauser, their status is still unknown."

"Unknown, what do you mean unknown?!" Danny shouted.

"There's no other definition for it Mr. Wolford." Z replied. "Not even the ZPD know of what became of them. But they did say some of the officers on the ground noticed two looking mammals falling from the building and down into the water fall. They sent some sniffers to the bottom of it to see if there really was anything, yet nothing was ever recovered. But in any case, the surviving mammal and the weapons left at the scene are what matter right now. Firstly, thankfully Hopps and Clawhauser were wearing the faced up hoodies and voice changing collars to protect their identity. That way even from hearing the statement of that bodyguard, they probably won't get much from him.

* * *

"So what exactly did these two look like?" Officer Wolford asked, as he was questioning the surviving bodyguard tiger Damien at the ZPD.

"I don't know, both of them had their entire bodies covered and voices changed." Damien replied. "But oddly, they seemed to have drawed-on objects on the face part of their hoodies. The small ones was a carrot, and the big ones was a microphone I believe.

"Interesting…." Wolford said while writing the information down on his notes. "Is it possible that you may have been able to tell the types of species they were at least?"

"Um, well I didn't really get _that_ good of a look at them." Damien replied. "The small one did seem to have unusually large feet so he or she may have been a rabbit. The big one….. I don't know. I guess judging from the weight I saw on him, he may have been a hippo or something?"

"A hippo and a rabbit…" Wolford mumbled, continuing to write down the information. "Well it sure does bring our odds higher as to who these two may be among Zootopia. We checked the crime scene for the case of money that was brought to the scene, but it was never found. I'm guessing those two took it while they were fleeing, am I correct?"

"Yea, they ran out the door with it." Damien replied. "For some reason though, one of the mammals killed on their side Fred I think his name was, he said if they were found out about who they really were, then the entire thing would be compromised anyways."

"Is that a fact?"

"Well it's what he said."

"Do you know why he might have said that?"

"I got no clue." Damien replied. "I mean after all, the only way to know would be to find out who they are, right?"

* * *

"Secondly, with the amount of weapons the police were able to recover from the scene, they must know how serious the gun situation may very well be now." Z continued explaining. "They may even have known about it before, depending on how much Drew Hoble told them. But just so you all know, what I told him while I was speaking with him on the phone earlier was only things that mattered for the trade. I never mentioned any mammals, phone numbers, addresses nothing. Those only time when things like that did come up were with Drew."

* * *

"Dang…." Officer Ramone said as she was examining the weapons found at the scene. "I never expected the type of weapons to be this high of a level. Heck, this is the highest we've ever retrieved from situations like this."

"Well we know you're the weapons expert here so do you mind telling us what is what?" Bogo asked. "After all, the police of this city are not used to having these sorts of weapons pop up in rare cases such as these."

"Well let's see what you brought in then." Ramone said opening the cases. "You got some assault rifles here at what looks to be a FAL, an M4A1, an ACR, and and AK47. Now the next case seems to be mostly snipers with an Intervention, an Elite, and I believe a Dragunov. But you guys struck gold with the cases of pistols here along with the ones the sellers used. I mean we got a Desert Eagle, a couple of USP's, some Pythons and even some Colts here."

"Now I want to bet these weapons here definitely don't seem to be your average findings on the streets of Zootopia…." Bogo mumbled. "How large of a problem do you think this might mean Ramone?"

"Well to be honest chief, whoever these mammals are that are able to produce and sell these kind of weapons, this could mean one of the biggest cases Zootopia has ever had in centuries." Ramone admitted. "Judging on the condition of the weapons and the amount there are here, it's telling me this is a big organization happening in Zootopia, and they have been doing this work for…. At least a decade, maybe more."

"That's not possible." Bogo said in disbelief. "We would have found out about an organization such as this by now!"

"Then whoever these mammals are, they must be professionals with this." Ramone said. "That's not all we found though. we also found this transcription jazz disc inside one of the bags as well. We're not exactly sure what the reason for it being there is, but we know this had to have come from somewhere. We might want to look for any jazz clubs or even stores that may have this in mind, whether someone bought it or even stole it."

"If only Mr. Hoble was still alive to answer that..." Bogo mumbled. We'll have some officers work on that later. Did you try analyzing the weapons for any fur on them or anything left behind before they were put in the cases?"

"Yes we did, but they were all picked clean with nothing leftover." Ramone replied. "So whoever these mammals are selling to, they most likely seem to be taking certain precautions before they make a trade."

* * *

"Now I know we were able to deal with such a problem related to this years ago when it comes salvaging the weapons, but now that those mammals passed away and the mammals we currently got don't have the skills to, we're out of luck." Z continued to explain.

" _What are you saying Z?!"_ A mammal shouted.

"Now this has never happened before and I don't expect it to happen again, but we're going to have to shut down this business until further notice."

Multiple voices were shouting out into the crowd after Z said that. Even Nick, Finnick and Danny were surprised at what he was saying right now.

"Now obviously I would expect all of you to react this way, but luckily there will still be a few jobs still being active that doesn't involve any publicity." Z said trying to calm all the mammals. "Most of them will involve guarding though. But now that the ZPD are fully aware of the level they are dealing with, with the weapon organization in the city, it isn't worth risking it any more than what just happened at that asylum."

 _"_ _And what about the mammals that won't be able to work, how do you expect us to make money if we don't have a job?!"_ Another mammals shouted as others cheered on.

"It's not my problem." Z replied. "And should any of you in anyway try to make any sort of _black mailing_ tactic to keep me from having this business become closing time, you won't have to worry about your money problems anymore. After all, you'll be dead."

The cheering stopped right after Z said that.

"I know what you're all feeling after hearing this stuff, frankly I'm feeling the same thing right now as well." Z admitted. "But if we don't take this action, this business may very well be fallan apart after all these years of keeping it together. I mean is that what you all want, to be permanently jobless? And as for us, most may very well be behind bars rotting there for the rest of our life. So I ask you all, which would you prefer?"

Most of the mammals started muttering to each other since they knew Z had a good point when it came down to what was a better option. Suddenly, the sound of the trapdoor was heard from inside the room. Most of the mammals' faces turned to see who it was as they stared at the door. Once the door opened with the two mammals immediately coming into the room, Nick immediately ran towards them and hugged one of them.

"We were so worried about you guys!" Nick shouted, as the two entering the door turned out to be Judy and Clawhauser. "Wait, why are you both all soaking wet? Oh no, to tell me you two actually-!"

"Yea, we did." Judy replied. "It took a while before we could make it back up to the surface after going down that waterfall, but we managed to get out of there without anyone else seeing us luckily. Oh and Z!"

"Yes?" he replied.

Judy came towards the stage Z was standing on and threw him a briefcase. He opened it and saw a large amount of money in it.

" _Mission accomplished."_ Judy said snotty sounding. "And if you don't mind me asking, what's with all the roundup of your crew here?"

After Z explained the situation to Judy and Clawhauser, they also became just as shocked as everyone else.

"How long will you be down for?" Judy asked.

"If we want to get our tails off the ZPD and continue our business without them noticing, it will probably have to be a few months at the very least." Z replied. "And this case right here, it will have to be the last paycheck for you all until then."

Once Z finished with a few more general notes, the mammals then exited the warehouse and went back up to their cars and vans to drive away. Nick was about to leave with the rest of his friends, but something was still left nagging in his head. He decided that now would be as good of a time as any to tell him if he won't be seeing him for a while anyways.

Judy noticed Nick turning around and walking back into the equipment room. "Nick where are you going?" She asked. "Outside is this way."

"I know Judy it's just…" Nick said hesitating. "I think it's time he knew about Amber."

Judy turned around to make sure no one was listening. She then followed him downstairs and grabbed his arm causing him to stop.

"You're going to tell him about Amber, are you crazy?!" She whispered loudly.

"I think it'd be better for him to know now, rather than months in advance." Nick replied. "Otherwise he might think we we're purposely trying to hide her after all this time."

"But we were!"

"Exactly, we don't want him to know that!"

"It's not worth the risk though Nick!"

"Judy, let go of me."

"Nick, we need to be smart about this-!"

Nick roughly pushed his paw out of Judy's grip and continued walking to Z's office, leaving Judy standing there shocked and worried. But eventually, she left knowing that she wouldn't want to be around if push came to shove.

Nick went over to Z's office and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" Z asked.

"It's Nick." He replied.

"…. What is it you need?"

"There something I wanted to let you know before we part ways for a while."

 _"_ _Well this should be interesting."_ Z thought.

"Come on in then and tell me Mr. Wilde."

Nick opened the door and took a seat in front of Z's desk.

"So what is it you wanted to tell me before we don't see each other again for a while?"

"Well Z, it would be natural for you to be mad at me about this, but there's no other way of saying it so I'm just going to say it."

"I'm listening."

"Amber Tailsmith." Nick said. "You were right, she is in Zootopia."

Z was wondering how he was sure she was in the city. "Oh really, of all mammals how would you _know_ that?"

"Well, she's in my apartment after all."

Z gasped after hearing those words from Nick. "I-I'm sorry… I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you just say, what I think you just said?"

Nick sighed. "I know you didn't want to find out this way. But I figure with all of the confusion going on about certain events that have happened recently, I may as well try to have a few things make sense before we-!"

"PUNCH!"

Nick fell on the floor after being punched right in the face, causing the impact of Z's punch to trip the chair over. Z walked over to Nick who was laying on the floor and hooked onto his shirt.

"YOU BETTER NOT BE SAYING WHAT I THINK YOU'RE SAYING." Z said loudly. "OR I SWEAR, I'LL-!"

"Or what, you'll kill me?" Nick asked. "Just like how you killed my mother? God, how can you even live with yourself after doing those things? Do you just never feel anything or any type of sorrow to a mammal?"

Z took out his gun. "Maybe I will just kill you then, you want to try me?"

"Well I'd rather you didn't since that would just be a waste of a bullet really when you're shooting someone useful to you."

"HAH!" Z shouted laughing. "You really think you're useful to me?"

"Alright, then let me just try and put it in perspective for you then."

"Oh I would just love to hear what you got coming out of your mouth next." Z said sarcastically. "So try me."

"Who was the one who made the warning call to you earlier?" Nick asked. "I mean if I hadn't called you by now, who knows how it could have turned out for you. The ZPD would have probably found a few of your crew out in the rainforest district near the asylum in the same vans Fred, Sylvia, Trevor, Judy and Clawhauser were in. Then what would you have done smarty pants?"

Z was hesitating for a moment to pull the trigger, but instead shoved him back flat onto the ground. "Take me to her."

Nick wasn't sure what he meant by that. "T-take you to her?"

"Yes take me to her." Z repeated. "What are you, deaf?"

"But Z, I don't see why we have to do something like that if we can just phone her or maybe-!"

"BANG!" Went the gun.

The bullet had just missed Nick's head by a few centimeters. Z right after put a silencer on his weapon.

"Now Mr. Wilde, are we going to play taking me to Amber, or shooting you in the head?" Z asked. "Because one of those games you might not like is the one I'm thinking of right now. Your choice." He said aiming the gun at Nick.

* * *

There was only so many things Amber could do at Nick's apartment since after all, it was just an apartment. She would mostly just lay on the couch watching some movies while eating whatever she found in the cupboard. But suddenly while she was laying on the couch watching television, she heard the door immediately open. But before she could look up to see who it was, a tall figure stood before her having a gun pointed to her head.

Z took the safety off his gun. "Do you have any last words Miss Tailsmith?"

Amber wasn't even able to breath after being asked that question. She instinctively closed her eyes tightly as her life flashed before her eyes when she assumed she had reached the end of the line. As Z was slowly pulling the trigger, her eyes opened again with Nick standing in front of the two mammals.

"Woah woah woah, hold it right there cowboy!" Nick said trying to stop Z from shooting Amber. "Listen Z, I get you're a little ticked at me for having done this behind your back, but if you were in my shoes, you'd understand my reasoning to this."

"I don't give a damn about reasoning Wilde, I give a damn about LOOSE ENDS." Z replied.

"But you need to snap into reality here though Z!" Nick exclaimed. "Think about it, five of your crew members have been killed in just the past few months! And not only that, how many do you really expect to have continue working for you once you come out of closing time with your business?"

"Yea, and whose fault is that, that I've been losing my crew lately?" Z asked.

"I don't mean to be snappy here Z, but you gave the orders to have that tiger and armadillo attack Clawhauser, not us!" Nick shouted. "You gave the orders to do this deal that was apparently a setup attempt, I mean how were we supposed to know those things would happen to you and even ourselves? _You_ were the one who gave the orders, not us!"

Z started to get angry. "That still doesn't make this loose end here a liability no more."

"This is exactly why I talked to you earlier about this before we stole that transcription disc at the club." Nick said. "She's not as stupid as you think Z, she knows what would happen if she ever tried to rat on you and your business. Come on Z, has it ever crossed your mind that it may be true if your mammals even took out _her_ entire gang, yet if she is in Zootopia she hasn't made a single confession to anyone including the ZPD yet?"

Z stayed silent while thinking about it, but kept his gun pointed at Amber's head.

"My point is Z, she is one of those mammals you can trust to keep quiet, and shooting her now will get you _nowhere_!" Nick said still being in between the two mammals. "And at desperate times like this, you may even need help once this business has started back up."

"Tch." Z said shaking his head as if he thought it was a joke.

"Hey, at times like these you can't deny the fact that you might need more paws before starting your business back up again." Nick said still trying to persuade Z. "And now that well…. Certain things have happened, not even you can deny it."

"Is that what you think?" Z asked.

"It's kind of what I know when it comes to common sense." Nick replied. "And for you, sometimes you just need to take that chance for the benefit of the doubt. Come on, what do you say?"

Z glared at Nick for a moment before aiming his eyes back down on the floor thinking about it. "I still say you're crazy for even thinking that this was a good idea for bringing in someone like _her_."

"Come on Z, this is a chance to actually spare a life for once without any chance of consequences to it." Nick said. "So what do you say?"

Z still had his eyes glued to the floor while Nick was still trying to persuade him, but his conscience was still having trouble deciding. After another moment of silence in the room, Z looked at Amber once more and smiled.

 _"_ _pew."_ Went the gun.

* * *

Finnick never really had much to do around his apartment either, but that didn't matter. Lots of things have also been going through his mind as well due to recent events. His mother being held captive by a psychotic zebra, him gunning down a lion, him and his friends having something to do with major events happening in Zootopia, it hasn't been easy for him ever since this insanity for him started all because of a 'what did you do today' question at your average bar.

He had just returned back to his apartment after hearing Z's emergency announcements earlier. He thought it would have him a giant load off of his chest, but there were things that still didn't sit right in his head. Even so, he put the rest of his stuff away, grabbed a beer from the fridge and tried to rest as well as he could on the couch. But only after a few sips from his drink did his home phone start to ring.

When he got up to see who was phoning, it was an unfamiliar number to him. However, he was still curious about who was calling since he never gets any phone calls very late at night, especially right after he came back from the warehouse. Even so, he answered the phone.

"Hello?" Finnick asked the mammal on the phone. "Yes this is he but, how do you know? Inform me about what?" He asked. As the voice continued to speak, his eyes widened as he dropped the phone. He stood still for a few moments in complete shock from what the mammal on the phone had just told him. He then walked into the kitchen, picked up his coffee machine and threw it across the room. He went on a bigger rampage by shoving anything he could see out of his cup board, busting the glass, smashing plates and glasses, and even knocking over his fridge until he was out of energy.

After he let it all out on all of his possessions, he dropped to the floor, went into a ball and bursted into tears.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 20, Lost**


	21. Lost

**Chapter 20: Lost**

October 3rd, 2016, earlier in the morning

Life behind bars was something he never wanted to do. But life behind bars while being held captive by a dangerous zebra was beyond his imagination. But whether he liked it or not, it was happening to him. And not just him, four others as well had to deal with the exact same issue with them being in the same cell as he is. And to only make matters worse, all of them had families they needed to be with right now.

"Chip, would you be a good lad already and mind helping us out with Maria over here?" Stu Hopps asked, as he and the others were still stuck in the cell while trying help Maria Masto, the mother of Finnick deal with her sickness.

Chip yawned. "Listen Mr. Hopps, I'm not the kind of animal you want help from when it comes to mammals down with sicknesses like that. Heck, you all probably know more than me about it."

"But you said you knew first aid didn't you?"

"No, I said I took a first aid class back in high school, which by the way I barely passed in." Chip replied. "Now if you don't mind, I'm trying to get a few more minutes of sleep here."

"Chip, were trapped inside a cell with exactly nowhere to go along with no type of communication we can use to speak to the outside world right now!" Stu stammered. "So I'm pretty sure you will have time to get your few minutes of sleep later, but right now we could use your assistance over here!"

Chip groaned. "Alright fine." He said as he slowly got up. "What exactly do you need my _assistance_ for?"

"We just need you to confirm how high her fever is." Stu replied. "She does feel pretty warm, but we aren't sure if that's a good or bad thing."

Chip went over to Maria to feel her body temperature. "Hmm, it definitely is warm, but the fact that she can't get up or speak even at her age isn't a good sign."

"How bad do you think it is then?" Ellie the sister of Clawhauser, another one of the mammals in the cell asked.

"I'm not quite sure, but something tells me she may not be able to make it without proper medical care." Chip replied.

"Hey fellas, what's wrong with that fennec there?" A koala guard asked, while walking by the cells. "She doesn't look to be in real good shape by the looks of it."

"We're not sure, we think she may have come down with some sort of sickness." Stu replied.

"It's not very surprising this happened to her." Chip said. "This sewers is most likely filled with all sorts of diseases with whatever has come down here."

"Well you got me on that one." The koala replied. "These sewer lines in the Canal district have been abandoned for quite a few years now with this part of the district being nearly abandoned along with it. So you nor I wouldn't be quite shocked to see someone come down with a sickness from the diseases spreading down here."

"So then, how do you treat mammals down here that come down with sicknesses like the one she's got?" Sherry Wolford, mother of Danny Wolford another one of the mammals in the cell asked.

"Oh I'll show you don't worry, Mary, Derek!" The koala cried out. A few seconds later, a raccoon and a Zebra were standing in front of the cell as well.

"Would you be so kind to watch them for a moment while I go in there for a second?" The koala asked. "It would be much appreciated." The raccoon and zebra nodded in agreement. "Splendid. Now I'll be coming in for a moment to be dealing with the fennec over here that we have to be not doing very well due to her sickness.

The koala then unlocked the door and went inside the cell to check on the coughing and weak fennec. He felt her body and immediately knew it was bad she caught.

"So, how is she?" Stu asked.

"She really is indeed in terrible condition." The koala replied. "Terrible enough to the point she can't even speak. You can see for yourself, all that will come out of her mouth is just coughing, coughing, and some more coughing.

"So then what do you suggest you guys do about it?" Stu asked.

"Well, only one thing we can do now."

The koala then took out a gun and pointed it at Maria.

Chip's eyes widened. "NO WAIT DON'T-!"

"BANG!" went the gun.

The koala had shot Maria straight in the head with blood spraying onto all of the mammals.

Chip's jaw dropped. "You…. You actually…." He said unable to speak.

"That is how we treat animals down here that come down with sicknesses." The koala said. "When it comes to the sicknesses that woman was carrying, it would most likely have contaminated all of you if you're all staying in the same cell. And if the rest of you die, your relatives will have no motive and it can ruin this whole organization if they tell anyone. So it's best that we take out the sick one, rather than simply watching the entire herd die."

The rest of the mammals in the cell stood there stunned from what they had just seen with their own two eyes, as well as the blood covering their clothing.

"Don't worry, I'll be taking her body away and placing it somewhere until we can get rid of it." The koala said. "We don't want the disease to still be in here after all."

"Yea, and how do you think her son is going to take this now, do you even realize what you've just done?!" Chip shouted furiously.

"We can just tell him she came down with a sickness and passed away, I'm sure he'll understand."

"Don't count on it!"

The koala grinned. "Now then, does anyone else have something to say that we should know about?" He asked pointing the gun at them. Most of the mammals shook their head. "Yea, that's what I thought." He said putting his gun away. "Mary, Derek, take this fennec away and put her in the truck. We'll drive back out to the desert with her body later."

Mary and Derek went in and grabbed Maria's body while walking out of the cell with it. The followed behind them as he went out while locking the cell once more.

Sherry Wolford immediately went towards the corner of the cell and threw up from the sight of blood everywhere, as well as witnessing a murder right in front of her. The other three nearly did the same thing as well, especially after seeing someone else do it.

"Well I guess you can have your few minutes of sleep now." Stu said glaring at Chip.

Chip tightened his grip as he glared right back at Stu.

* * *

October 3rd, 2016, present

" _Pew."_ Went the gun.

She thought her entire life was over. She figured when she opened her eyes again, she would be in either heaven or hell depending on her choices in life. But no. when she opened them again, she was still on the couch in Nick's apartment with the gun Z was still pointing at her as she saw the smoke from the gun. She turned and saw a hole through Nick's couch, which she assumed was the bullet hole Z shot at.

"That was a warning shot." Z said. "The next shot I take Miss Tailsmith definitely won't miss next time. Don't forget that."

Nick still tried to calm down after almost believing he shot her. "So can you just give her a chance then Z?"

Z sighed. "Under normal circumstances I would never do such a thing when it comes to mammals like her, since the first shot would always go to the head with no questions asked."

"That's a _normal_ circumstance?" Amber mumbled.

"But as much as I hate to say it, you do make a fair point Mr. Wilde." Z admitted. "At desperate times such as this, we may need a few more helping paws if I'm ever going to continue with this business. I'll back off for now with this little problem we have here, but that does not mean I will have you two or any of your friends off my mind. You should consider yourselves lucky my conscience got through to me with this one."

"Thank you Z." Nick said. "We promise to you nothing bad will come to you by doing this. You made the right choice here."

"That's not what I'm worried about right now Mr. Wilde." Z said talking back. "Besides, what I'm more concerned about is how you are going to be able to keep her in the same city that is currently looking for her, for all we know the ZPD might not think she's actually dead."

"I'm sure we can figure out a solution to that when the time is right?" Nick said enthusiastically.

"And I'm just curious, who else knows about this fox girl being here other than you?"

"Um, well other than me it's just Judy that knows."

Z laid his hooves on his head, and closed his eyes while shaking his head trying to act mad. "You told Officer Hopps about this?"

"Well I needed someone to talk to about what I'm dealing with here." Nick said defensively. "What, you think I'm the only one around here who comes up with the ideas, almost like I'm the brain in the group?"

"Well you sure act like it." Z replied.

Nick chuckled. "Well, it's true that I'm not much of a mammal that would ask a rabbit for help, but when it comes to trust, she's the best person I can think of to be trustworthy enough to talk to about certain conversations like this."

"Yea, that makes sense." Z said. "She definitely isn't one that fears, she's more of one that wants to stand up to fear. It's almost as if she doesn't know what true fear is."

"Yea, she has been known to be a pretty naïve little bunny at certain times." Nick said agreeing with Z. "Believe me, I've seen a bunch of times with her like that-"

"It's what I don't like about her." Z interrupted. "That girl seems to have been filled with hope and prosperity her whole life that she is practically blind as to what fear even is."

"But you don't know her life as well as you think you to Z…" Nick said disagreeing. "I've heard about a few dark times with her back in the past… it's not like it's any easier for."

"Perhaps." Z said. "But I wouldn't worry about it. One day, no matter what her past was like, I _will_ show her what true fear is."

Both Nick and Amber didn't like the sound of that.

"Oh but listen, I'm going on about silly nonsense right now." Z said in a normal tone. "I'll be off now, but you two better play your moves carefully over the next few months, or else I'll be making them for you no matter what they will be. Farewell."

Z put his gun back in his suit as he began walking to the door. By the time he walked out of the room and slammed the door shut, Amber got up to make sure Z was gone by looking out the window.

"Look Amber, I know how this may seem, but you have believe me when I say that I knew what Z was going to-!"

"SLAP!" Went the sound of Amber slapping Nick in the face. "Just what in the hell was that?!" She yelled.

"Uh, it's called saving your skin so, you're welcome?" Nick said sarcastically. "And ow by the way!"

"Nick what did you do?" Amber asked. "What did you just tell him about me?!"

"I told him the truth, what else do you think I told him when it comes to someone like him barging into my apartment, and immediately having a gun pointed at your head with the trigger ready to be pulled?"

Amber had a furious expression on her face. "What in your mind made you decide to do that?!" She shrieked.

"Do you know about the recent shootout that happened yet?" Nick asked. "But you probably already heard about it on the news by now."

"What about that, that explains your reasoning behind Z's murder attempt on me?!"

"I'm getting to that, just calm down." Nick replied. "The shootout started when Z's crew figured out it was a setup Drew Hoble created, but the ZPD was still able to get loads of evidence from the crime scene and now Z told all of his mammals, including me and my friends that they have to shut down the business for most likely a couple, or even a few months until further notice."

"I'm sorry, but you're losing me as to why you fricking told him about me and where I am!"

"I'm getting to that!" Nick shouted, while trying to keep her patient. "Now under the circumstances that you and I have been put under by Z, it seemed reasonable to tell him about you."

"Reasonable?" Amber asked. "How in any way would it be reasonable?!"

"Because we won't be seeing _his_ face anytime soon for another whole few months!" Nick exclaimed. "Besides, whenever I chatted with him in regards to you, it was almost as if he forgot you were a problem! Also if Z were to find out about you hiding here months in advance, he would assume I was purposely keeping him from finding you."

"But you _have_ been purposely keeping him from finding me this whole time Nick!"

"You see, Judy said the exact same thing to me before I was about to tell Z about you Amber, but the thing is we don't want him to know that."

"Well I'll bet he knows now genius!"

"Well, not necessarily because otherwise he really would've pulled the trigger on your head, and not on my couch."

* * *

October 4th, 2016

"Really, so then what did she do next?" Judy asked.

"Well she obviously freaked out about what the heck all that was about, she even slapped me in the face!" Nick replied, as he and Judy were chatting with each other on their break in the cruiser. "My face was red afterward, But eventually she ran out of energy and just gave up on fighting with me."

"Nick, your face is always red."

"Oh, you're right." Nick said, as both of them started laughing.

"So on a serious note though, what does this mean for her and Z's relationship with each other?"

"It doesn't _seem_ like he will kill her, but it's more like he's keeping a close eye on her at the same time." He replied. "He did say though that she could be useful to him when he 'opens' that business of his again, but it's not like it should be too challenging for him to find some other mammals to do his dirty work. Sometimes Judy... I really tend to wonder if Z is just going to let us go once he doesn't need us anymore."

Judy started biting her lip. "Well, we should just make sure it doesn't come to that then."

 _"_ _Right."_ Nick said, knowing that it's not as easy as it sounds.

"So hey, did you ever ask Finnick or Danny about their thoughts on last night?"

Nick thought about it. "After the kafuffle with Amber last night, I did phone those two. Danny said it would be better if we just never saw each other for the time being which I totally understand where he's coming from with that, but as for Finnick he never answered his phone."

"Why not?"

"Who knows, maybe he really is a heavier sleeper than we thought." He replied. "I mean we did finish up with all those problems pretty late. By the way, how are you feeling about what happened last night, like mentally? It's just, it's never easy going back to the normal life after an incident such as that."

Judy sighed, knowing what Nick was trying to do. "You don't have to worry about me Nick, and the same goes for Clawhauser." She replied. "You know, back in that building when we realized it was a trap, I wanted to try and figure out a way for it to not result in chaos such as what _did_ happen, but once Fred yelled at us to get out of there, it was almost as if saying he knew what was about to happen and didn't want us to be involved in it. I don't know if that's because he thought we were amateurs at this stuff and didn't want us to blow the entire thing, or if he really did feel like trying to save us as some sort of deed in his heart."

"What, are you saying Z and his mammals actually have a conscience?" Nick asked. "Don't worry, I can confirm Z does after what happened at my apartment last night."

"No, I'm just saying not all of his mammals are total monsters."

"Off of one mammal Judy?" Nick asked. "Look, even you have seen what they have done to us, and other mammals. Once you see sights such as those, it's hard to change your mind about mammals like them."

Judy kept her eyes down. "I know. It's just…. I've been feeling so lost lately on my thoughts that it hasn't been easy while trying to comprehend with all of this craziness we have been dealing with. It makes me ask myself everyday if it will end the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that, or the day after that…."

"Yea, I get your point." Nick said. "Well off topic here, I was just wondering if you still have your stuff from last night."

"What, you mean like the voice changer and the hoodie and such?"

"Yea."

"Oh yea, it's still in my apartment under my bed." Judy said. "I'm sure you've done the same, right?"

" _Yea_ but I might want to try and find a better place just in case." Nick replied. "It's not that I don't trust Amber or anything, it's just that let's say by the million to one chance that an officer were to come into our apartments and scope it out, it definitely wouldn't be good for us in more than just one way."

"Well true, but it isn't very likely for that to happen so I never really bother to think about it."

"But say if someone were to-"

"I'll make sure no one finds that stuff Nick, you don't need to worry about it." Judy said. "What, are you doubting me or something about what I already know?"

"No, I'm just one that doesn't want loose ends such as those to untie, otherwise even a little screw up like that can lead to god only knows what."

"Don't let your imagination get the better of you then." Judy said. "Look all I want to do now is make sure no one else has to die, while _we_ get out of this mess with Z and maybe just maybe by then, we might be able to bring Z to justice for everything that's happened."

Nick sighed. "Mammals say miracles happen if you believe they can. But even a miracle won't be able to stop a monster like Z."

"Nick, think whatever you want, but I'm not going to finish this with Z still out there Scott-free." Judy retaliated. "Think about all the _damage_ he has done up until now at least to our knowledge! Bucky, Weaselton, Drew and his bodyguard, Lenny and his _entire_ gang, his own crew, those mammals buried in the Kafya desert… Your mother?"

Just the mentioning of Nick's mother only brought in horrifying thoughts and memories back into his head. All he could do was try to fight off those memories so it wouldn't corrupt him. " _Just think of happy thoughts Nick, think of happy thoughts…."_ Nick thought.

"Nick, are you okay?" Judy asked, as she saw him with an expression of grief on his face.

Nick hesitated for a moment before responding. "Y-yea…. It's just, it's just hard to believe everything that's happened so far in just a few words like that, that's all…." He said with his face still down.

"Oh, well yea I guess." Judy said. "But at any rate, we just need to have our thoughts together before we start talking about our next move."

"Our next move?" Nick said sarcastically. "Judy, right now it seems like the only moves that we'll be making are the ones Z tells us to make which he said to us himself. That is of course unless you want us to end up like the last time with the little roulette game Z apparently likes to play."

Judy wasn't quite sure what to say after that. "Look let's just, finish our patrol in Savannah central so we can get off early today." She said trying to change the subject.

Nick sighed. "Whatever."

The two finished eating the rest of their lunch and started the car to continue patrolling the Savannah central. But even though they finished chatting with each other about a subject such as Z and the work and events he had do for them, it still didn't feel like that sort of conversation was over and done with for them.

 _"_ _Why can't Judy just understand by now that it's pointless to do anything risk-taking when mammal's lives are still on the line here?"_ Nick thought.

 _"_ _Why can't Nick understand by now that if we don't do something, more mammals lives will be on the line here?"_ Judy thought.

 _"_ _I just wish…"_ Nick thought.

 _"_ _I just wish…"_ Judy thought.

 _"_ _We can do this altogether doing it the right way and finishing this once and for all."_ They both thought.

* * *

Night time.

"Hey chief, a few of us are going to be hitting the bars tonight!" Higgin's said, as he came into Chief Bogo's office. "Me and the boys were just wondering if you wanted to tag along. It's just that, you've been working nonstop for months on this weapons case that we think you could use a break for once."

Bogo chuckled. "I appreciate your offer Higgins really. And I would hate to disappoint you all, but I'm still busy doing research on some of the recent events that have happened."

"Oh, alright then."

"But while you're here, there is something I wanted to ask you about."

"Oh, sure what is it?"

"I just wanted to know if you got any leads on where that jazz transcription disc came from."

"Ah yes I nearly forgot to talk to you about that, thanks for mentioning it to me." Higgins said. "We were actually able to find a match at a club known as the cotton club. Apparently they never even noticed it missing until now so that doesn't exactly help us narrow down the suspects or even species type for that matter."

"What about surveillance tapes, did you find anything on them?"

"The problem with that though is that there wasn't any." Higgins replied. "That place is going out of business right now so they are unable to afford them currently. Needless, to say, we hit a dead end with the jazz disc there Chief."

Bogo laid back in his chair. "It doesn't matter, we still have other options to think about with the weapons. We can have some officers go undercover throughout some of the bad streets in Zootopia and see if we get any luck with them for the same guns seen here, or any for that matter."

"I'll get to work on that as soon as I can then sir." Higgins said. "Hey, I almost forgot to mention, what are you working on right now seeing all these profiles on your desk?"

"I just wanted to see if there was any possible connection to the victims and missing mammals of this case so far, which you and the officers obviously know of by now."

"Ah, and did you find anything that stood out while you were scanning through all of these profiles?"

"Well, one but I'm not sure if I have enough evidence to support it ye."

"Oh come on Chief, you should know us better than that by now!" Higgins said loudly. "We don't care if it's even as small of a connection as a toothpick, it's always great to start somewhere. So what did you find with this connection?"

Bogo shrugged and held up two profiles to Higgins.

"Amber Tailsmith and Duke Weaselton?" Higgins asked. "What's the connection here?"

"Well, it turns out both of them were acquaintances with each other as both of them used to pull of some pretty big scams a while back." Bogo explained. "They lived with each other for a year or so until Miss Tailsmith was able to get enough money to buy her own apartment. Both of them have still been in contact with each other for quite some time, But the way both of them turning up missing seems to be rather odd."

"Why do you say that?"

"Amber Tailsmith suddenly goes missing in the middle of august around the time she and her gang also do, as well as them being suspected of weaponry uses as well." Bogo continued to explain. "Then one month later, we find Mr. Weaselton dead with gunshot wounds all over his body after suspicions of being interrogated by some mammals."

"So, you think this Amber Tailsmith and Duke Weaselton have something to do with the main source of this theorizing weapons manufacturing group?"

"Precisely." Bogo said. "Now I know most signs have shown that the mammals from Lenard Jarvis's group including Amber Tailsmith have already been killed possibly from the main source of whoever is making these weapons, but the question right now is, why would they need to go to Weaselton for information if Miss Tailsmith is already dead?"

Higgins's eyes widened. "Maybe because she's not dead yet!"

Bogo smiled. "Exactly, but most likely just Amber if Weaselton seems to be the only victim we know of that has been interrogated. So if she still is in fact alive right now, I want all officers to be on the lookout for that fox before anything happens to her. If we can find that fox, we might just be able to solve this entire case."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 21, Away From Trouble**


	22. Away From Trouble

**Chapter 21: Away From Trouble**

December 18th, 2016, two months later

Opportunities like this never always happened for him. He tried to make the best of it since he never tends to see much of her anymore. His ex-wife knew what he was capable of, but that didn't mean she still wouldn't let him see her, especially since the holidays are coming around anyways.

Since occasions like this never always happen with him and his daughter, he always tries to make the best of it no matter what. He ended up taking her to the fancy restaurant Mammals Dine so they could catch up on what's been new with each of them.

"So Zoe, how have things been working out for you?" The father asked.

"It's been going fine I guess." Zoe replied. "You?"

"Me?" The father asked while chuckling. "Well my job isn't really that exciting sweetie, accountants are accountants after all."

"Yea, I guess so." Zoe said chuckling. "I never really knew accountants could make enough with what you would usually give me and mom lately. What, do you have another well paid job nowadays dad?"

"Eh, I suppose it's something like that." The father replied. "So um, how has your mother been doing lately?"

Zoe shrugged. "Okay, like every other single mom would be I suppose."

"Ah, that's superb then." The father replied. "Well I'm glad you've been enjoying yourself so far with her, how are those ballet lessons you're currently taking working out for you?"

"They're good, a couple weeks ago I was able to do the splits after trying for so long."

"Oh honey, that's amazing!" The father shouted with his hands in the air. "Honestly I've really been so proud of you lately with your skills and school, I think I see a very bright future for my little stripes!"

Zoe smiled. "Thanks dad."

"Hey, you know I love you with all my heart and just remember, nothing will ever change my mind about that." The father assured putting his hooves on his daughter.

"Hey dad, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course you can."

"Well I mean, I'm almost seventeen years old now, and you and mom went your separate ways when I was just a kit." Zoe explained. "Mom has always wanted to keep it from me for some reason, that's why I wanted to see if you could tell me."

"Oh, tell you what?"

"What was the reason you two separated?" Zoe asked. "It's just that I can't add all of this up since you seem like a great dad every time we meet, and mom seems like a great mom around the house. Did something happen between you two that made her want a divorce so badly?"

The father sighed. "We just had some creative differences about each other, that's all sweetie. You shouldn't worry about it too much about it, really. Besides, you've been having a wonderful life so far with your mother, right?"

"It would be better if you were a part of it though." Zoe said with her head down. "Dad, do you know what it feels like to only be able to see you a few times a year? My _own_ father, whom I even considered a role model for me can't even make a single seven pm ballet recital with just the very least of an hour drive to get to it."

"Oh honey, you know I wanted to go to those but…"

"But what dad?!" Zoe yelled. "What is it you have been doing that's so important, you can't even have time to be with your own daughter?! You say you love me with all your heart, but how can I believe that when we never even spend any time together? What is it an accountant has to do that ends up ruining nearly every single time we plan to see each other and bond even over the slightest things?" She asked as tears started falling out of her eyes.

The father couldn't think of anything to say.

"Tell me the reason doesn't have anything to do with why you and mom seperated…" Zoe asked, being suspicious of her father.

The father wanted to say something, but still nothing could come out of his mouth.

"Ugh, figures." Zoe replied. "You know, before I came here, I tried to ask mom one more time about why you two split but you know what she said?"

The father stayed silent while putting his head back up to look at Zoe.

"She said you would never tell me what it is." Zoe answered. "So who am I to you and mom now huh? What is it that's so important of a secret you don't even have trust in telling me? Or maybe that's it, you just don't trust me."

"No no, it's nothing like that." The father finally replied with his eyes closed. "You are the most trustworthy mammal I will ever meet in my life. But your mother and I agreed on keeping the truth away from you for the _better_."

"Oh and now you're talking like a father should, where have you been for the past ten years?"

The father shook his head once more. Just then, his phone started ringing. Once he saw who it was, he knew he couldn't take this with anyone hearing it.

"Hang on a second Zoe, I need to take this." The father said. "But feel free to order what you want when the waiter comes."

Zoe rolled her eyes. _"Sure thing."_ She said unhappily.

The father went out of the restaurant with it snowing outside as he answered the phone. "Yes Ray?"

 _"_ _Hey boss, I know you've been asking me to snoop around the ZPD to see if any new things have come up for them on the case, and I do got a few updates for you_."

"Are you sure you have to tell me now, I'm kind of in the middle of having dinner with my kid here."

" _It will just be a few moments of your time, I don't want to forget to tell you later."_ Ray replied. " _So right now, the ZPD do have reasons to believe Amber Tailsmith is still alive and out there somewhere."_

"How would they have figured that out?"

 _"_ _You got me on that one, but that's what I've heard."_

"Well in that case, it doesn't matter since they won't find her." The father said. "Mr. Wilde has been able to keep her away from the publics eyes for more than two months now. I even called him last month about the situation, and he even says he was able to take her outside a few times without anyone noticing. Now I don't know if that may be true or not, but he sure is keeping her away from where the ZPD can't see."

 _"_ _Yea you're probably right then, especially since he's a part of it so who would suspect him."_ Ray said. _"Now the second thing I hear from eavesdropping on a few cops is that some of them have been going undercover around the areas which some of our guys have been hanging around in. should that be a concern?"_

"Well as long as none of our mammals around those streets act like they haven't seen a gun before in their lives, then there shouldn't be anything to worry about." The father explained. "What I'm more concerned about is when you think the ZPD will start to take the heat off of us so we can go back to business."

 _"_ _It's still a little hard to say as of the moment."_ Ray replied. _"Seeing as how they still got their eyes glued to the streets, and how much work is being put into this case right now, we still may need another month or two even, just to be sure."_

The father sighed. "That's unfortunate."

 _"_ _Yea, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but it's the truth."_

"No no, it's not your fault, it's just that I seemed to have underestimated how serious the ZPD have been taking this case is all." The father said. "But on another note, I have to get back inside now since my daughter is probably wondering what the holdup is. But call me if you ever hear anything else, we don't want to miss anything that may be important."

 _"_ _Sure thing Z."_

* * *

It has been a long two months for Judy, Nick, Danny, Finnick and Clawhauser. Judy, Nick and Clawhauser were always able to see each other at the ZPD every day, but all they ever talked about were things work related. Sometimes they did tend to talk about Z's group when they had a job regarding it, but they never got to hear much from Finnick or Danny during that time.

The four of them eventually heard about the passing of Finnick's mother Maria Masto, who supposedly came down with a sickness while being in the cell and never made it. They heard it from Finnick a week after he heard the news about his mother. He told the others he didn't even leave the apartment for that long since he wanted to feel calm about recent events while he was at work.

Danny tried to keep what has happened to him and his friends out of his mind, however everything he tried never worked. He did start to see his father more to comfort him while his mother was still missing, but he knew very well she was still in that horrible cell where two of his friends loved ones have already died. Meanwhile his brother Matthew Wolford was still having suspicions on his brother, but since the holidays were just around the corner he decided to drop it for now, especially since he's noticed Danny really has been more helpful lately.

Judy didn't seem to have changed much from Nick's point of view, but deep down he knew she had to have some large ball of stress inside her that she didn't want to let out. He knew she came to Zootopia to make the world a better place, but this time she _really_ thinks she broke it. All that she and her friends had been doing had caused nothing but fear and misery to the city. With a self-burden like that on her shoulders, it really surprised Nick how determined she still was with all this.

Nick on the other paw knew keeping Amber hidden inside the city would be no easy task, but he still did it the best he could and succeeded quite well. Amber still wasn't quite used to the new living style she was forced to stay in for the time being, but she has been able to adapt to it once time has continued to pass. Eventually though, Nick knew she had to do some chores around the house instead of laying on the couch all day.

"What's wrong with laying on the couch all day, is it a crime to you police officers?" Amber asked, as she wasn't very fond with the idea of doing chores around his apartment."

"Amber, we have finally been away from trouble for the past two months now." Nick stated. "So I doubt you have to worry about another crazy maniac coming in with a gun on you. Now would it kill you to at least do a few things around the place while I'm not around, instead of just lying there all day?"

"Yea, pretty much." Amber replied. "I've just adapted too much into my surroundings by now, sorry to say."

Nick slapped his face as his paw slowly slid down. "I didn't want it to come to this, but you leave me no choice. No chores, no more junk food." He said, as Amber immediately turned her head with a shocked expression on it.

A few minutes later, Amber was washing some dishes and cups in the kitchen. "Honestly, your order me around just like my parents." Amber called out to Nick as he was leaving. "Where are you going anyways?"

"It's the holidays isn't it?" Nick said rhetorically. "There's always things on sale that I might want to snatch for myself. That, and I have to pick out something for the ZPD's secret Santa day coming up. Don't ask me why they made up that tradition, I just go with the flow with special days like that for the ZPD. Of course, the biggest present they would want right now is Z."

"Tell me about it." Amber said. "Oh and if you see any Christmas cookies on sale, would you mind grabbing some please, with a cherry on top?"

" _Wow, a girl like her is into Christmas cookies?"_ Nick thought while walking out the door. _"Wow, I guess I must've misjudged her personality by a bit…. Why would I be thinking about things like that brain?"_

* * *

Christmas time. The kind of time where everywhere you went, it would be shopping, shopping, and more shopping. It would also be the main reason why the city seems to be more colorful and filled with lights at night time. All of those things, including the soft and calm snow falling from the sky really does bring people into the spirit.

Nick knew the best mammal to look for some good gifts for mammals would be Judy. It was mainly because he knew she had a good eye when it came to shopping.

"What exactly is it that you're aiming for, for a gift?" Judy asked, as she and Nick were walking around Savannah central while trying to find a good place to shop. "I mean if it's clothing we could always try Spike, H&M, stylists, Brooks, L brands-"

"Judy, I probably know more stores in this city than you do by now." Nick said. "I just need some help narrowing it down in the process."

"Oh okay well, what did you have in mind for a gift?"

"I don't know, do you know anything that a tiger may like?"

Judy smiled. "You got Jackson as a secret Santa, didn't you?"

Nick sighed. "Kind of…."

"Well come on, you've been with the ZPD long enough to know about those mammals, don't you know anything that may come to mind for him?"

Nick thought about it. "Well, he has been having his eye on Ramone for quite some time now…"

"No, I meant object wise!" Judy exclaimed. "Do you think there's anything he could use right about now?"

Nick continued to think. "How about a watch? I've seen the watch he carries around with him and it seems to be in a pretty crummy shape, don't you think?"

"But Nick that's not special, wouldn't you be grateful if the special mammal in your life did something amazing like that to you?"

"See, that's the problem though Judy." Nick replied with his back turned from Judy crossing his arms. "The special mammal in my life is now gone."

That's when Judy realized he was referring to his mother, who was killed by Z a few months ago. She assumed Nick just found it hard to believe it had already been a few months since then. She wanted to say something to cheer him up, but she thought it would be better if she kept her mouth closed about that subject.

"I think the watch will do." Judy said, as she began walking again. "S-so while we're on the subject of Christmas shopping, why is it you need those cookies again?"

"Aw what, you think a fox like me is too mature and sly to be eating a silly little shaped piece of sugar?" Nick asked grinning. Judy giggled back. "Eh, even so it for Amber anyways since she's also going on about and I quote, 'getting into the spirit of the season'. I never thought of her like that that ever since the first time we met."

"Well I guess you miscalculated on that one you dumb fox!" Judy said laughing, as she playfully hit Nick on the arm. "Now in my opinion, I think the best bakery around here for Christmas cookies would be Bakehouse in Tundratown. What do you think?"

"Yea, I guess we can see what they got."

While they were walking around Tundratown, they saw numerous places with toys and gifts being seen from the windows, Santa Paws manikins everywhere, and even singers singing all sorts of wonderful Christmas tunes on the streets. Nick and Judy both knew Tundratown would be the best place for Christmas because since Christmas is a time celebrated during a cold season, Tundratown would be the best place for the spirit of the holiday with the climate it would usually have no matter the season.

It was also the reason the snow machines that would usually be used to produce snow and have a cold climate in the city turned off. The reason was because there really was no need to keep them on when snow and a cold climate are already happening currently. But once the temperature has risen to at least higher than three to five degrees on an average, they would reactivate the machines again.

"Hey Judy, I've been meaning to ask you something about the holidays with your family." Nick said, as they were nearly at the bakery.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well it's just that, you told me you have about two hundred and seventy-five siblings back in the Burrows." Nick said stated. "Not to mention your parents, your uncles and aunts, your cousins, your nephews and nieces, et cetera. How can one bunny such as yourself be able to juggle so many gifts for so many other mammals at once?"

"First of all Nick, I can be a faster shopper than you think when it comes to times such as this." Judy explained. "Secondly, my family is aware of that issue with the amount of gifts we would all need to buy, so my parents would usually assign family members to all of us about who should get gifts for who. The average list for most of the rabbits in my family would usually be around twenty to thirty per rabbit."

"That still is quite a bit of responsibility though, around thirty mammals to get gifts for in just the span of a month or less?"

"Well, it really isn't as hard as it sounds actually." Judy said. "Besides, I mostly just get the same thing for everyone. Well, unless it was someone specific that I know what they wanted. I would try calling a few of them to ask what they want, but they never even say they want anything since they _already_ have what they want."

"I guess a rabbit can only have so many things with their size huh?" Nick said grinning.

"Ha, ha, very funny." Judy said smiling. "Alright well, we're here so let's find some cookies shall we?"

After picking out a few Christmas cookies shaped like candy canes, trees, snowflakes and ornaments, they thought it was enough to satisfy Amber and even themselves since they got a little hungry as well. Afterwards, they continued to walk back to their apartments as Nick decided he could get the watch at a later time since it was getting a little late out already.

"Hey Judy?" Nick asked.

"Yea?" Judy replied.

"You _are_ going to see your family this year, right?"

"W-well of course." Judy replied. "Why wouldn't I, it's pretty much one the only times I can be able to see them through most of the year."

"I know, I know, and I one hundred percent agree with you on that, you don't have to worry." Nick assured. "But it's just that with your father not being there and all….. doesn't that ever keep a grudge on yourself when you come into the room and mammals may ask, 'Where's papa?' or grandpa, or uncle or whatever. And you're standing there knowing where he is, but the words can't come out of your mouth?"

Judy sighed, knowing where Nick was going with this. "I just try to look at the lighter side of it all."

"The lighter side?"

"You know, like the positive parts of all this." Judy replied. "I know my dad doesn't like what I've brought him into, and frankly if I had the choice to swap spots with him, I'd take it in a heartbeat if it meant keeping him safe. But I'm sure right now he still wants me to stay safe during all of this. If he knows what you and I have gotten ourselves into and we're still breathing, I'm sure he still has hop in him somewhere."

"So, your point is…."

"My point is he would want me to still keep doing what I'm doing with occasions like family Christmas parties, even if it's without him."

"So basically you're doing this because you think that's what he would want?"

"Believe me Nick, I wish I could ask him right now about what he would want from me, but we still don't know where he, and our other relatives along with Chip are being held." Judy said. "So, I just try and go with my gut for the time being. Not just that, I'm sure my mother could use some comfort right about now. Her and my father have always gotten along very well as soon as they laid eyes on each other, and with him just disappearing like that it must have been pretty hard on her."

"Well hopefully your gut is right then."

"Yea, hopefully…." Judy said silently. "But enough about me, what about you? Don't you have any relatives you can spend the holidays with?"

"Well first of all, you know about what happened to my mother by now so I can't do that." Nick said with his head down. "Secondly, I could care less about my father no matter what kind of time it is.

Straight away, Judy knew Nick and his father must not have gotten along. "Why would you say that about your own father?"

"Well let me tell you the story behind it then." Nick replied unenthusiastically. "You see back in the day, my father always always called my mom and I quote 'his girl' almost as if he didn't even care about my mom, like he just wanted to have her around to improve his social game." He said gesturing his paws.

"But I'm sure deep down he still loved you and her, right?"

"Well I haven't finished the story yet." Nick said. "So he always took her to bars, had her hang out with the wrong mammals, even went outside the law a bunch, bad things like that."

"Oh my…" Judy said, as she was listening still. "But why would your mom still want to stay with him after having him do all of those things to her?"

"Love sure is a funny thing sometimes carrots." Nick replied. "Ever since high school, she always secretly had a crush on him. And finally when she confessed her feelings to him like ten years or so later, he only found it as a convenient way of _using_ someone as beautiful as her to his advantage."

"So was she just never noticing the real him?"

"Well, not until I came along." Nick said deeply. "So one night, she decided to call my dad and meet with him again outside one of the parks to discuss things about their relationship. She told him immediately she was pregnant with me, and with him as the father. That totally got him by surprise since that was something he never expected would happen in a million years with him and my mother."

Judy was very surprised to hear about Nick's parent's past. "So… how exactly did he take that news?" She asked.

"Well, he definitely freaked out since around the time, he was even thinking of seeing a few other vixens." Nick continued. "He told her to immediately get an abortion because he knew it would ruin his reputation if the news were to get out. But when my mother said she was keeping me, he…. He….."

"He what?"

Nick stopped with his eyes closed."He shoved her to the ground, grabbed her by the shirt and threatened her if she didn't do it." Nick said. "But luckily, my mom was a strong lady and simply told him that he doesn't scare her. Something tells me the reason she was like that was because she must have found out he was seeing other vixens and saw him as the snob that he really was all this time. But as I was saying, once she denied it he slapped her across the face, left her on the ground and walked away never to be seen by anyone again."

"Wow, that's one of the saddest stories I've ever heard…" Judy said. "Did you ever try to contact your dad at any point in time?"

"I never saw a reason too." Nick replied. "When I heard about the story from my mother and what he did to her, I acted like he was practically dead to me."

"Wait, so you're saying you and him never saw each other's faces?"

"Pretty much." Nick replied. "I'm sure he's seen my face somewhere on the internet by now, but he wouldn't care about me. All I know about him after the incident was that he tried to start up some sort of a clothing store somewhere in the Canal district. It seems like he went broke because when I was a kid, I stumbled across it when I was walking with my mom around there. And that was when she told me about the story of her and my father." But you know what, if I had the chance to see him in the flesh, I would punch him so hard in the face it would be the most powerful one he would ever feel for the rest of his remaining life."

"Yea, sounds about right." Judy said chuckling, as she was getting close to her apartment. "But seriously though. Thanks for telling me that Nick. it really does give me more trust in you if you were even able to tell me about something that sad which happened to your family."

Nick smiled. "Don't mention it. And when I say that I'm actually serious, please don't tell anyone."

Judy giggled. "You're secrets safe with me."

"So you asked if I had anyone else to celebrate with." Nick said, bringing up the topic once more. "Well my grandparents on my dad's side I heard from my mom passed away a while ago. My grandparents on my mother's side don't live in Zootopia. If I were to visit them, I would need to go halfway around the world. Now I know it seems like I made a lot a while back with those con years, but when it comes to my living expenses, things get too complicated for me to handle visitation trips such as those."

"You know what, why don't you try and celebrate it with Amber then?"

"Amber?" Nick asked surprised that Judy suggested that to him.

"Well you two are in the same household after all, and you're both foxes so it's not like it will be _that_ awkward for you."

"Yea but, I'm not really in _that_ kind of a relationship with her though."

Judy cocked an eyebrow. "I meant celebrating it with her, not kissing her or whatever was going on in your mind."

"Oh, well yea I suppose but…"

"Well it's either that, or you're on your own." Judy said. "Unless you want to come with me to the Burrows?"

"NO, no, no." Nick said immediately. "I-it's not that I don't like the rabbits over there or anything, it's just that I've heard how some rabbits think about foxes up there and I don't really want to be given the dead eye by rabbits everywhere."

"It's not like that at all, but suit yourself then." Judy said. "Well I believe we'll be at my apartment soon so I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yep, goodnight carrots."

* * *

When Nick entered the door back into his apartment, he found Amber laying back on the couch watching television, assumingly having the chores he asked her to do finished.

"Of course." Nick mumbled.

Amber heard the door close as she was laying on the couch, having her being unable to see the door. "Is that you Nick?" She called out.

"Yea it's me." Nick replied sounding tired.

"Did you get the Christmas cookies I asked for?"

"Mmhm, they're right over here."

Amber immediately got up and went over to the cookies to see what kind Nick bought. _"Is that really what it takes for her to get up, more junk to get her paws on?"_ Nick thought.

A few moments after Amber gulping down the cookies, Nick spoke up. "Hey Amber."

Amber looked up at Nick after having her eyes locked on the cookies. "Yea, what ish it?" She asked with cookie pieces in her mouth.

"W-well uh, I don't really have anyone well…." Nick said hesitating. "Well anywhere to be during Christmas time so I think I'll be spending it here for that day."

"Oh, well what about work?"

"Certain mammals such as myself get to leave a few hours earlier to be with their families." Nick explained to Amber. "There were already enough volunteers to be taking the night shift around that time, so I'll be off work early that day."

"Okay…." Amber said, still unsure where Nick was going with this. "And you're telling me this because…."

Nick paused for a moment. "Uh, I just, just thought I should let you know so you know when I'd be returning that day."

"You hesitated." Amber said with an unimpressed face on her.

"What, no I did not!" Nick retaliated.

"Nick, just say whatever is on your mind that you want to ask me."

Nick wanted to argue that there wasn't anything, but he knew in his mind Amber was right. _"Nick just ask her, it's not like she's going to bite… right?"_ Nick thought.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to um…." Nick said, still nervous about asking her.

"Wanted to what?"

"If you wanted to spend Christmas together?" He asked with a high pitched voice at the end.

Amber laughed. "Sure, I'd love to. But we're already going to be in the same room anyways so we may as well, right?"

Nick nodded back to her with an unsatisfied expression. He wasn't quite sure if Amber understood what he was trying, but more like wanted to tell her. After another few more moments of awkward silence between the two foxes at the table, Nick stood up from the chair, decided to go with his gut like Judy said and say what he wanted to say.

"Look Amber, there really isn't point in hiding it anymore." Nick said with his paws on his waist.

Amber wasn't sure what he meant. "What, what are you talking about?"

"Come on Amber, we've both given each other hints at it over the past couple of months, but neither of us ever wanted bring it up."

Amber had a feeling he knew what he was trying to say, but was too shy to admit it. "I-I don't really know what you're getting at here Nick…."

Nick put an eyebrow up. "Fine, then I guess I'll just have to show you what I'm getting at."

Nick then slowly walked up to Amber.

"W-what are you-"

He interrupted Amber as he kissed her on the lips. After a few seconds Amber backed off.

"…" Amber was speechless.

Nick sighed. "It's okay, I get it. I kind of assumed you would react to it that way so it's alright."

Amber stood still As Nick was walking to his room. But before he opened the door, Amber shouted to him. "Wait!"

Nick turned around. There was a moment of silence between the two foxes before Amber began walking towards Nick. Without hesitating, she immediately and willingly grabbed Nick's shirt, and shoved him forward putting her lips back on his. As for Nick, he didn't have a problem with it either.

"You know something Nick?" Amber said.

"Yea?" Nick replied smiling, as he had his paws around Amber's neck.

"You were right."

The two then smiled at each and kissed once more while walking over to the couch and laid down on it. Nick and Amber then took their clothes off while moving their paws around each others bodies as Nick was on top of Amber still not letting go of one another.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 22, We're Back**


	23. We're Back

**Chapter 22: We're Back**

February 20th, 2017, two more months later

Whistling was one of the only sources of entertainment they had while being stuck inside that cell. Ellie Clawhauser, Sherry Wolford, Stuart Hopps, and Simon Clawchip were the only ones left inside the cell now. Not only was it freezing cold for them with winter season being around causing drafts to bring in cold air, but their surroundings was nothing more than revolting for the four mammals.

Even so, it had been a while since anything bad had happened to the mammals in the cell. Some of them thought it was a good sign, others thought it was just a time limit before another one of the mammals in the cells' life would come to an end.

"It's funny isn't it?" Chip said.

The other three mammals looked up at him while they were in their own corner fiddling with whatever they could find on the floor. But most of what was on the floor was either bugs, or tiny rocks chipped from the walls of the sewers.

"What exactly can be funny about this Chip?" Ellie asked.

"The ZPD and every single mammal in all of Zootopia, well besides Z's crew have been searching over and under this entire city for us, but nobody has be able to find us in over four months now after all that searching." Chip replied. "Four months heh….. four months being stuck inside these walls without any sort of hope in getting out whatsoever."

"Someone will find us eventually Chip, we just gotta have some hope in us that it will is all." Stu said.

"Hope, what hope?" Chip asked. "I don't know what's going through your head right now old mammal, but it sure sounds like you weren't listening to a damn word that I have been saying this entire time."

Stu stood up. "Oh I've heard you loud and clear Chip, but the only things that I've been hearing that has been coming out of your mouth is negativity."

"Negativity, you seriously think that's negativity I'm speaking?" Chip asked. "You sir have one hundred percent _no clue_ as to what you're talking about if you think I'm speaking like the bad mammal in this cell."

"Well then let's put it to a vote then." Stu said crossing his arms. "All in favor of me not having a clue as to what I'm saying raise your paw." No one besides Chip put his paw up. "Mmhm, and all in favor of Chip having a negative attitude towards our little situation?" No one besides Stu put his paw up, which got the attention of both Stu and Chip. "Ellie, Sherry, aren't you going to vote?"

"Nope." Ellie replied.

"What, why not?" Stu asked.

"Because us two are in favor of neither of your battles towards each other." Ellie replied. "You two honestly are acting like complete idiots."

"Me?" Stu asked. "What have I done to be called a complete idiot from you Ellie?"

"Gee, maybe we should go down the list if that's what you want." Chip argued.

"Zip it Chip." Stu said in a serious tone.

"Make me, I dare you to." Chip retaliated.

"Alright enough you two!" Sherry shouted. "Listen, it's been a tough four months for all of us. But this is mainly because we all have something we want to return to desperately."

"Oh yea, and what's that?" Chip asked.

"Family." Sherry replied.

"Pfft." Chip said rolling his eyes while turning away. "What do you mammals know about family? Do you even know what it feels like to be so desperate to protect one of them, you would even want to do things you're not proud of?"

"I'm sure we all know that feeling by now Chip." Ellie said.

"Oh is that so?" Chip said rhetorically. "Try losing your father at such a young age, while watching your own mother suffer on a bed for weeks, and weeks, and WEEKS! And when you know that feeling, then we'll chat."

"How about being a parent? Sherry asked. "Mammals like yourselves wouldn't understand what it's like to not be with your own children after so long! Do you think I would want my two boys to fall into depression because of me? It's like saying I should just put a bullet in my mouth before that happens."

"Two boys?" Stu asked. "Yea well try two hundred and seventy-five kits! You think _I_ have liked being away from them for so long, is that it? Because for me this is not a question if can or can't do it, I just simply can't do it!"

"Oh whoop dee doo for you, Mr. Guy who thinks he's more important than us!" Ellie snapped back.

The four of them continued to argue at each other until the Koala guard started to hear the shouts and arguing in the cell. The Koala then banged on the cell bars to get their attention.

"HEY, HEY!" The Koala shouted. "Enough already with you four! Stop acting like little babies and get along already! Either that, or I'll have to shut another one of you up myself if that's what it takes. I don't care about any of you, heck I can even pop another one of you right now and it still wouldn't matter. But because of the kindness of my heart, I choose not to. Do you want to test it though?" He asked, but with no response. "DO YOU?!"

"N-no…" Stu said silently with his head facing down.

"That's what I thought." The Koala said.

Just then, the zebra guard came walking towards the cell the Koala and the four mammals were at.

"What is it Derek?" The Koala asked.

"Look Noah um, we recently heard some stuff on the news I think one of these guys need to know." Derek silently said to Noah without anyone else hearing.

"What kind of news?" Noah asked. As Derek Whispered the news to Noah, his eyes widened. "Are you sure about this?" He whispered.

"I'm positive, they have the same last name after all." Derek whispered back while crouching down to tell him. "I even checked the profiles with the two and they matched."

"Oh, well that's sad to hear." Noah said.

"So should we tell him?"

"Sure, why shouldn't we?"

"Well it's just that he's been through enough right now and don't you think it'd be better if he didn't know for the time being?"

"Since when did you become such a softy Derek?"

Derek sighed while having his eyes closed. "I'm just saying it may be better if-"

"Chip!" Noah called out. Chip looked up at him after laying back down. "Come to the bars for a second, there's something we need to tell you."

* * *

The ceiling was always the first thing Nick would gaze at with his arms wrapped around the back of his neck in the morning now. He would always think for a few minutes that if it wasn't today, it would be the next day when he would get the phone call saying 'we're back'. It had been a long, yet surprisingly relaxing four months for him considering what he and his friends had been having to deal with before then.

He did the math in his head. As an officer himself, he predicted the ZPD would be slowing down with this weapons case, seeing as how also nothing has come up for more than four months now. Some of the officers did think they were just laying low for the heat to come off of the suspicions, but others thought they were really gone for good since they didn't want to get caught and thrown in jail for it.

"You up too?" Amber asked, as she was lying beside Nick on his bed.

Nick turned his head towards Amber. "Yea…." He mumbled. "I know it's a little too early for me to be up even if I got work today, but it hasn't been the easiest for me to stay asleep when I know what may be happening soon."

"You and me both." Amber said while looking at the ceiling as well. "It's a pain in the tail kind of feeling I know, but that is why you make every second count before the bad things start to happen, mainly just for satisfaction sake."

"Oh yea, and where did you hear that from?"

"My mom."

"Your mother?" Nick said in confusion. "What made your mother decide tell you that one day?"

Amber laughed. "Trust me, that's a story that is best left untold." She said, as Nick started to laugh as well.

Both of them stared at the ceiling once more. "How do you think it all got to this?" Nick asked.

Nick shrugged. "Who knows, I'm just having trouble thinking about how I got to here in the first place. And never in a million years would I have thought we would meet each other like this, and end up like this." He said pointing down onto the bed.

Amber exhaled deeply. "It was only natural for it to happen."

Nick turned his head to Amber once more. "Oh yea, and how's that?" He asked grinning.

Amber turned her head towards Nick Cocking an eyebrow. "Come on Nick, a single fox such as yourself having a vixen like me suddenly pop up in your apartment and having been here for more than four months now? Quite frankly it would be unnatural if it hadn't happened by now."

Nick giggled. "Believe what you want to believe."

Eventually the two foxes got out of bed and started to prepare for the day, at least Nick was. Amber did respect his privacy when he asked her to leave the bedroom for him to change into his police uniform, while Amber decided to change onto the couch. Later as Nick was making some toast for him and Amber in the kitchen, he noticed something peculiar on the news Amber was watching. He walkd over to it to get a better look.

"Hey Amber, could you turn that up a bit for a sec?"

"Yea, sure." Amber replied, as she grabbed the remote to turn it up.

 _"_ _If you are just coming in, we have breaking news about female wolf Margret Clawchip, yearlong cancer battler passing away earlier this morning."_ The news stated. _"Doctor Neil Moosejaw claims she stopped breathing at approximately one, thirty am when they went to check up on here. She was rushed to the emergency room where she later died."_

"Margret Clawchip…" Nick said while thinking about where he's heard that name.

"What, did you know that wolf or something?" Amber asked.

"No, but the name rings a bell…"

"Well I hear she was very well known since she was a mammal that held in with that cancer longer than others have."

"No it's not that, I'm just trying to think…."

 _"_ _Her daughter Vanessa Clawchip was absolutely devastated after hearing about the loss of her mother once she got the call when we interviewed her earlier."_ The news continued to state. _"This is what she had to say."_

 _"_ _It's just a tragedy about what happened to my mother this morning."_ Vanessa said with tears coming out of her eyes. _"I really thought she could be able to beat this horrible cancer the way she fought it…. I'm sorry it's just hard to cope with all of this. I mean father passed away when I was very young, and now my mother is-"She paused having trouble saying the words she didn't wanted to say. "And my brother…. I don't even know where my brother is!"_

 _"_ _Vanessa Clawchip's brother Simon Clawchip is among the many mammals to have gone missing around the time the rest of the missing mammal cases were under suspicions of guns being involved in them. His whereabouts as well, are currently unknown."_

"Oh that's right, Simon Clawchip was who I was thinking of." Nick said.

"Simon Clawchip, who's that?" Amber asked.

"He was just a former member of Z's we asked for help a few months back with that little uh… body faking challenge."

"Wait, what do you mean former?"

"Well the thing is, after the shootout incident with Clawhauser back at that park, Z figured out it was Chip who phoned him to warn him about the attack. The last time I saw him was when all of our relatives including my mother were forced to participate in that fox roulette (Russian roulette) game I told you about. My best guess, he is probably with Clawhauser's sister, Danny's mother, and Judy's father somewhere out there right now locked up."

"Well, do you know any places Z might have held them at?"

Nick thought about it. "Well, when I ask myself where _I_ would be keeping them that the city won't know about, I've got my suspicions."

Just then, the phone started to ring. Both Amber and Nick's eyes widened as they knew what that phone call would possibly be for.

"M-maybe it's just a friend of yours?" Amber said.

As Nick slowly went over to see who was phoning, he dropped his head facing down and answered the phone.

"Hello?" Nick said.

 _"_ _Is this Mr. Wilde that I'm speaking to right now?"_ The voice on the other end asked.

"Yes this is he, what is this about?"

 _"_ _This is Z's assistant Brittney._ " Britney replied. _"Z just wanted to let you and your friends know we're back and opening the business again."_

 _"_ _Damn Mondays…."_ Nick thought.

* * *

As Judy was also in her apartment getting ready for work, not too long after Nick got his phone call did she receive hers as well.

"You're telling us this now because?" Judy asked, as she was hearing the new from Britney.

 _"_ _Z is a very schedule-oriented person._ " Britney replied. _"He would rather set up meetings in the morning, rather than rushing to start one later that day as he is definitely a very busy mammal for most of the day."_

"Wait, did you just say something about setting up a meeting?"

 _"_ _I'm getting to that."_ Britney replied. _"He would like you five to come meet him at a public party tomorrow night that will be taking place in downtown inside the Bermelia building."_

" _Zootopia day…"_ Judy thought. _"The day when mammals began the creation of this city to what it is now. It must be what the public party is going to be about."_

 _"_ _I will be mailing all the specifics to you once we get all of that put together."_ Britney continued explaining. _"But he would want you all to be dressed at least somewhat fancy in order to blend in with the other mammals that will currently be there. You five as well as Z and most likely some of his Hench mammals that will escort you, will be going onto a separate floor where you will be discussing with him about business-related matters."_

"Business-related matters, is that another way of saying illegal jobs when it comes to him?"

 _"_ _Whatever questions you may have right now will have to wait for when you meet with Z later tonight."_ Britney replied. " _I am not the mammal you would want to go to for questions such as those. Now then as a reminder, we will be sending you the specifics once we have everything planned out."_

"Oh don't tell, what is Z who told you to say that if I ever asked it?" Judy asked. A couple seconds later, the assistant Britney had hung up the phone on her. "Of course…." She mumbled.

* * *

February 21st, 2017, the next day

Zootopia day seemed like one of the craziest times for Zootopia. Parades going on all over the streets of the city, crazy foods of all sort, parties happening inside nearly every building of the city, all sorts of crazy things to celebrate the day of the creation of the city.

But the higher-ups of the city in the meantime would usually throw their own private parties in many of the popular, or important buildings of Zootopia such as Bermelia, Kwazone, and Fenton, the three tallest buildings of Zootopia. The three buildings were named after the three creators of Zootopia who lead an entire army of mammals to build the city all the mammals know of today.

Judy was later mailed the specifics about the meetup that day. She and her friends were ordered to meet up with his mammals in the lobby of the Bermelia building once Z's mammals recognized them in the party at around eight pm. Judy surprisingly had only been to Downtown once, and it was to meet the former mayor Bellwether. But because she didn't know the area too well, it was the main reason why she decided to go with Nick this time.

"So have you ever been inside any of those buildings?" Judy asked, as she and Nick were in their fancy dresses while making their way to the Bermelia building on the train.

"Me?" Nick said. "Only a few times when I was just a kit. I used to like going there mainly because back then when I was all the way up to the tallest floor of those buildings, I used to act like Godzilla to the rest of the cities since all the mammals and buildings were so small compared to where I was. Yea, I'll admit I was a pretty weird kit back then with my own hobbies."

Judy giggled. "If you ever have your own kits, then I'm sure they'll be just as imaginative as you were."

Nick blushed. "W-whoever even said anything about me having kits?"

Judy laid her chin on her paw still looking at Nick. "So…. Does that mean you don't want any kits or something?"

Nick hesitated for a moment. "W-well I wouldn't say that I would never consider it but…. W-what am I even saying right now, now is definitely not the time to be discussing this topic Judy!"

Judy chuckled. "Fine, I get it. You're looking pretty snazzy tonight." She said, as she saw Nick dressed in a tuxedo.

Nick looked at himself wondering why she thought it would be considered snazzy. "What this? This is just something I wore to a friend of mines wedding back in 2006, frankly I'm surprised it still fits me. What about this motif you got working for yourself? A light blue glittered dress, normal blue slippers, is that lipstick I see on you?"

"I can be a fashionable mammal when I want to Nick, I just never choose to." Judy said crossing her arms. "Besides, they never had clothes like these in the burrows. Over there they always had country dresses that were always so easy to break, or were just very itchy all the time."

"Sounds like they didn't even bother making clothes that wouldn't break the minute you put it on."

"Well, it wasn't all that bad since it was always on sale, and it was also a good way to get some materials for making a Halloween costume, but most the time it was for a zombie, I never knew why." Judy said. "It's also how my parents were able to afford so much clothing for us. I mean when you got around two-hundred mammals living under the same roof, buying some clothing fashion wise is never on a rabbits mind."

"But yours is." Nick said smirking.

"Because I carried my own weight around the house." Judy said. "I eventually came to an age where I figured I could hold my own around the house, and that brought myself to being able to live by myself in the city up until-"

"We're here." Nick interrupted.

"Already?" Judy said surprised. "Wow, I guess this train goes faster than I thought."

"Judy, we've been on this train for twenty minutes."

Judy was shocked. "Has it really been that long? Huh, well I guess time fly's when you're having fun right?"

"You call a conversation like that fun?" Nick asked, as Judy was continuing to giggle.

As they were walking through the Downtown of Zootopia, they ended up having to walk through multiple mammals on the streets that were celebrating tonight. Most of them were wearing crazy costumes, throwing decorations around, and dancing.

Once they approached the Bermelia, they could already see multiple limousines parked outside by the lobby, which Nick and Judy assumed were the transportations for all the wealthy mammals. The mammal by the door didn't even bother to ask for an invitation from them seeing as they were already looking fancy enough to be guests to the party.

 _"_ _Huh, maybe that's why Z wanted to make sure we wore something fancy to here tonight."_ Judy thought.

When they walked inside of the lobby, they could see various sorts of mammals all dressed up as fancy as Nick and Judy were. They saw an entire buffet inside by the front entrance, a large amount of tables set up all around the floor and most likely beyond what they could see from walking in, a spaced area just for dancing, and even a large room nearby with a bar and television in it.

"So, any idea on what or who we're supposed to be looking for?" Nick asked.

"Well Z did say his mammals would be escorting us to whatever floor we'll be going on." Judy replied. "We should try to find Ben, Danny, and Finnick while we're at it."

Nick nodded his head. "Yea good idea, I mean it's better than going around talking to all these mammals like we're bottom feeders or something."

"Tch." Judy said smiling. "Let's check the buffet, if Clawhauser were to go anywhere first, it would be there."

"Yea, probably."

As they went over to the buffet to check for Clawhauser, they walked around it a few time to make sure, but there was no sign of him. They ended up going to a few of the tables and the bar and the bar as well to see if Finnick and Danny were anywhere to been seen, but there was no sign of them either. They assumed they just hadn't arrived yet. Eventually, they gave up and went over to a nearby table to wait for whoever was supposed to come and get them.

Both of them got a bit of food while they were at the buffet and continued to wait while they were eating. But even once they were finished, no one showed up.

"Maybe we just showed up here a little too early." Nick said.

"Well he said to be here at around eight pm and it's that time right now." Judy said. "There must be some kind of a hold-up then…."

While they were waiting, they noticed a certain lion chatting at a nearby table with another lion.

"Is that…." Nick said.

"Yes it is." Judy said. "It's mayor lionheart."

Mayor Lionheart, the current mayor of Zootopia as well as the mammal behind the missing mammal cases back during the night howler's incident. After former mayor Bellwether was convicted of treason, the charges for Lionheart were later dropped after putting the rest of the blame on Bellwether. He was later reinstated as the mayor of Zootopia as well as most of the mammals in the city forgiving his actions.

"Do you really think he did the right thing with all of those mammals who went savage?" Nick asked.

"Well of course he did." Judy replied.

"Really?"

"Well he was trying to find a cure, as well as making sure the city was not panicking over what was really happening to all those mammals."

"Yea, but-"

"But it was all for the wrong reasons with him." Judy interrupted. "All he cared about was himself and losing his job. He never cared about the being of those mammals that were in trouble being infected with the night howlers. And when you think about it, that means he didn't care about those mammals families and probably even children that they were leaving behind while he took them to that Asylum."

"Well I guess it just comes to show how powerful greediness can be with mammals like him carrots."

"Hm."

As Lionheart continued to walk around chatting with all the other wealthy mammals, he couldn't help but catch his eyes on Judy and Nick as he was walking in their direction. Judy realized he and Nick were probably going to have an awkward conversation coming up as they saw Lionheart walking towards their table.

"Oh what luck." Judy mumbled while sliding her arm across her head stretching her ears.

"Just keep it cool." Nick whispered. "He can't blame us for what we did to him, _we_ did nothing wrong. We just caught him doing something wrong in the middle of the act."

Judy nodded back as Lionheart was only a few steps away from them. When he approached Nick and Judy, there was an awkward between the three mammals. Lionheart stared at them and smiled.

"Well, well, if it isn't two of Zootopia's finest coming here for tonight's celebration!" Lionheart said energetically.

Both Nick and Judy were surprised by his greetings. "M-mayor Lionheart, I never thought we would be seeing you here." Judy said.

"What, are you kidding?" Lionheart asked. "It's my party!"

"It is?" Nick said.

"Yep, I sent a few business friends of mine some invitations to this and said they were welcomed to give it to whoever they wanted."

"Wow, sure is pretty generous of you if you mean by _anyone_." Judy said.

Lionheart laughed. "Yes it sure is. Say, who invited you two?"

Both Nick and Judy hesitated to answer that, knowing they were never exactly invited. "Uh, we just…." Judy said hesitating.

"Various mammals actually." Nick said butting in.

"Oh is that so?" Lionheart said.

"Yea, I guess we must be pretty well known and helpful to the city that wealthy mammals like them would be inviting us to it." Nick said.

"I'll bet so." Lionheart said nodding

"So who's that Lioness you have walking around with you?" Judy asked.

Lionheart turned around. "Who her?" He asked pointing. "That right there is Daniella Furman. We met each other during an estate meeting I had with her a few months ago for a few new houses I was looking at. I don't know, I guess you can say something clicked between the two of us when we met."

"Well, I'm glad you two have been doing pretty well with each other then." Judy said.

"Yea…." Lionheart said, still gazing at her. "But enough about me, how have you two been doing on the streets these days?"

"Fine, I guess." Judy replied. "Just the same old, same old, you know with catching criminals running around the streets back and forth and everything."

"True, true." Lionheart said. "Listen I don't mean to be picky, but how's that weapons case going for the ZPD?"

Both Nick and Judy stared at each other before staring right back at Lionheart. "Well right now we believe whoever is behind all of that must have stopped, especially since there hasn't been any activity from these so-called weapon manufacturers for quite some months now."

"Yes, let's just hope that is the case." Lionheart said, before being approached by a polar bear and a leopard. "Oh why hello there, who might you two fine gentlemammals be?"

"We are just here to escort Mr. Wilde and Miss Hopps to a private party being held on an upper floor." The polar bear replied.

"Private party on the upper floor?" Lionheart asked. "I never heard anything about that, and it's my party."

"Which is why it is called a private party mayor Lionheart." The leopard replied.

Lionheart laughed. "Yea I guess that's true! Well then I guess I'll let you two at it then and Nick and Judy, nice catching up and staying on the same level." He said winking at them before leaving.

"I'm guessing it's time then?" Nick asked the polar bear and leopard.

"If you will follow us to the elevator please." The polar bear requested.

Judy and Nick got up from their seats and followed the two mammals over to the elevators. Once they got in, they saw they were going all the way up to the twenty-seventh floor.

 _"_ _I guess Z is really taking some precautions when setting up this meeting."_ Judy thought. _"But where are Danny, Finnick and Clawhauser? I thought I would've seen them by now."_

They continued walking through the corridor until they were put to a halt at a meeting room. The leopard held the door open for Nick and Judy as they were entering the room. In there they saw Z looking out the window, as well as one other of his mammals in the room. Once Z heard the door open, he turned face to see Nick and Judy coming through the door.

"Ah, you made it." Z said grinning. "Please take a seat."

"Hold on, where are Clawhauser, Finnick and Danny at?" Nick asked.

"All in good time Mr. Wilde, now please take a seat." Z requested. The two then plopped themselves on some chairs beside Z and pushed them back into the table, as they heard the door close behind them. "Now then, what shall we discuss first?"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 23, Harsh Luck**


	24. Harsh Luck

**Chapter 23: Harsh Luck**

"Please, take a seat." Z said pointing to the table as he, Judy, and Nick were about to have a chat with each other in the Bermelia building on one of the top floors. "Now then, what shall we discuss first?"

"How about where Danny, Finnick, and Clawhauser are?" Nick suggested.

Z sighed. "As I said before Mr. Wilde, all in good time. Now then, I suggest we first discuss the main reason for this meeting. As you can tell by now, we're back from the dead."

" _Duh."_ Judy thought.

"So a mammal of mine Ray, he's been keeping an eye on the ZPD for a while now and has been phoning me daily for any new updates to emerge." Z explained. "I would've asked you two to do it, but something in my mind still tells me I can't trust both of you one hundred percent."

"Well, why would you say that?" Nick asked.

"Do you remember that little fake bodies scam of yours, as well as the outcome of it?"

"Oh, right…." Nick said putting his head down.

"Mmhm." Z said. "So as I was saying, over the past couple weeks, he has been informing me that the ZPD would be backing off most of the streets they have been staking out throughout the course of that time. It means they're starting to back off of this case now that no other occurrences have been happening anywhere in Zootopia for the past few months now."

"I can believe that Z, but what if they notice it again right afterwards?" Judy asked.

"Miss Hopps, the last time something like this ever happened to us was about sixteen years ago now." Z replied. "Something like this was bound to happen eventually to us anyways. Plus back then we weren't quite smart with how careful we were delivering things."

"You know I'm sure the both of us would just _love_ to continue on with whatever story you're telling us right now, but why don't you just cut to the chase already." Nick said talking snappy.

Z groaned as he laid his head upwards. "You foxes can really be such buzz killers sometimes. Fine, the main reason we asked you here is because we have some more jobs for you to do."

Judy felt like someone had punched her right in the gut. "M-more jobs you said?"

"Yes, you heard that right." Z replied. "All five of you will be participating. There are still many buyers out there that are still willing to buy from us, even after that incident four months ago at the Asylum with Drew Hoble, whom I should let you know did not even live up to how much money he was supposed to bring. Apparently he was somewhere around forty- thousand Dollarz short. But the fact is right now, we have been getting even more buyers now that they have been impressed with us and showing what we can do."

"Showing what you can do, what the heck's that supposed to mean?" Nick asked confused.

"Well when you think about it, an event such as so where we left so much evidence behind, yet we were still never discovered is no easy task." Z stated. "That would make some of our buyers assume how good we really are, even with events such as those."

"The ZPD sure don't think that though." Judy said, arguing with his statement. "They think you and your crew are nothing but psychotic and sloppy criminals. They're not afraid of you mammals, even with a gun in your paws. Heck, they even think the night howlers case was still a bigger deal then yours."

"Hmm, is that so…." Z said. "That isn't exactly how I would want my business to be considered under these conditions, but if the ZPD really do think about it like that, then it means they don't know anything about what me and my business are _really_ capable of yet, which definitely something we can use to our advantage is. But if, or when the time comes for that, I will not be afraid to show our businesses true colors in any way possible if that's what it takes."

"Right…." Judy said uncomfortably.

"Now as I was saying, other mammals were so impressed by that, that they even contacted my business to offer to buy our products." Z said. "It's almost as if that incident improved our business! Well sure, some of my mammals' lives were lost, but if it means keeping this business protected and making money, I'd take that risk. So now that we have more clients to deal with, I'll be needing a few more paws to help make the trade."

"Oh dear…." Nick said mumbling.

"I want you five to be the ones to help me with some of those trades for a little while."

Judy and Nick looked at each other again with a nervous look. "Look Z, I know business especially jobs such as trades really do mean a lot to you, but the fact is we are just not cut out for it." Judy said to Z. "It really is best if you didn't have us do that."

"Oh Miss Hopps…." Z said exhaling deeply. "I still remember those previous times with the Claw Street, as well as the Cliffside Asylum sort of times. But the fact is for us, with all of these new buyers coming in we need as many paws as we can get right now. Besides, those occasions were not fully your faults, they were mainly just harsh luck. But now you will be going into ones that these buyers wouldn't even care if you're wearing ice cream costumes while singing try everything. The only thing these mammals would care about is getting what they're asking for, as well as living up to their side of the bargain, which by the way means getting our money."

Judy and Nick stayed silent for a moment while still thinking about it. For them, this was obviously not something they wanted to go through with again, but they still knew at the same time their relatives lives were on the line which was something they didn't want to risk.

"Do you want use to use the same clothing and materials like we did before, then?" Nick asked.

"Yes indeed." Z replied.

"When do you think you'll be starting these trades of yours exactly?" Judy asked.

"Um, tomorrow actually for the first one."

Both Nick and Judy gasped with immediate shocked expressions on their face. "Tomorrow?!" Both Judy and Nick yelled.

"Well, you did ask for me to be exact." Z argued. "Besides, it's at a late time so it's not like you have to worry about that chief of yours becoming suspicious of you."

"But, but TOMORROW?!" Judy shouted.

"Is there a problem with that?" Z asked.

"Y-you can't just tell us something like that and assume we're okay with it!" Judy shouted. "I mean doing something like that tomorrow, after we haven't even seen you or your crew for at least four months now?!"

"Think of it as like a rushed project then, and it shouldn't be any more different." Z said, trying to calm Judy down. "Now I only heard about this a few days ago myself, which is why I wanted to talk to you two in the flesh, but mainly since I knew it would be a long conversation for all five of you."

"Which reminds me for like the third time now, where are the others?" Nick asked.

"How impatient can foxes and rabbits be these days?" Z asked, facing his mammals. "Well to put it in simple terms, they're not here."

Nick and Judy were confused. "What do you mean they're not here?" Nick asked. "You told all of us to meet you here to have a talk about your business."

"That's right, I did." Z said. "But I never said anything about all of you being here at the same time, now did I?"

Judy's jaw dropped. "How the heck could we have known that?!"

"You're police officers, aren't you?" Z said rhetorically. "I would've assumed you could figure it out if you asked your friends the specifics with the timing."

"Never mind that, why did you want all of us to come at a separate time at all?" Nick asked.

"Because we thought it would be better if some of the questions we are to ask you would be answered personally, not as a whole group in order to understand all of your opinions in this condition you're all currently in."

"Wait a minute, are you implying they were already here?" Nick asked.

"You sure got quite a perception there Mr. Wilde." Z replied. "Well yes, it is true that we've interviewed everyone except you two by now, but I would've rather we interviewed you two separately. Seems like one of you didn't even bother to look at their time and the other simply told him or her what time they would be meeting up."

"Well what's the point of interviewing each other separately since regardless, we don't have anything to hide from each other?" Judy argued.

"Oh you probably don't Miss Hopps I'm not saying that, but something tells me opinions aren't going to be the exact same with both of you." Z replied. "After all, one of you originally a con mammal, and the other chasing their dreams no matter how fast they have to keep up. Quite frankly, I would be _astonished_ if both of you had the same answers when you look at it that way."

"This is ridiculous." Judy mumbled, while shaking her head and turning her body the other way. "It doesn't matter now since we're both cops so why does that matter to you?"

Z rolled his eyes. "If you think things like that will change any perspective about something, you still got a whole lot more to learn about the real world Hopps. But who could blame you, you've been a country girl nearly you entire life right?"

"Look it doesn't matter right now Z, just ask us whatever you wanted to ask us and we'll be on our way, because I'm sure all of us could use some sleep by the time we get back to our homes." Nick said, trying to persuade Z.

"Now you're really gonna get ticked at me." Z said. "We're going to have to do this separately as well."

"Separately?" Nick wondered.

"Yes, one of you will be outside for the time being, and I will be having a discussion with the other mammal." Z explained to Nick and Judy. "Once I'm finished with that mammal, I'll call the other one to come in, while the mammal I just chatted with will probably be back in the lobby waiting. Does one of you want to volunteer to go first?"

Both Nick and Judy looked at each other, curious to see if the other would raise their hand to volunteer. Nick eventually stretched his head long enough to look at the ceiling while sighing loudly.

"Fine, I'll go first." Nick said deeply.

"What, Nick!" Judy whispered.

"Judy in these kind of times, we may as well just go along with it." Nick said. "We can just tell each other about what we said to you afterwards, right Z?"

"By all means, go ahead." Z replied. "But there may be something you wouldn't want to admit to the other person, so you five just be careful now. Alright then, Biggy would you please escort Miss Hopps out of the room so Mr. Wilde and I can have a chat?"

"Sure thing." Biggy replied.

Once Biggy and Judy were out of the room, Z held a hoof up signaling something to the leopard. When the leopard came back, he was carrying a machine in his paws.

Nick was starting to get a little nervous. "Um, what's that he's got there Z?" He asked.

"That is a lie detector." Z replied. "We will be using this as a precaution in case you were to lie to us about a certain question."

Nick laughed. "It really isn't necessary, what would there be that I would want to lie about?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Z replied, as Nick oddly stayed silent, while the device was being put on him. "Now before I get into any personal stuff, I'd like to know some of your opinions. First of all, what are your thoughts on what we've been having you five do?"

"If you really want my true opinion, it has basically felt like taking orders from a psycho." Nick replied. "You and your little weapons business have made us see things no mammal would ever dare to see in their entire lifetime. I saw a mammal closing his eyes before my very eyes, I hear about my own friends having to go through things not even I can comprehend it doing, and am I forgetting something? Uh oh yea, YOU SHOT MY MOTHER!"

"He's telling the truth." The leopard said.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure that one out Richard." Z said. "But you know Mr. Wilde, I was not _born_ a psycho, I was created into one. It just tends to happen when you figure out the harsh luck in life. Alright next question, do you have any thought on any of your friends that you want to get off your chest?"

"What, no." Nick replied shaking his head.

"He's lying." Richard said.

"What, no I'm not!" Nick shouted, trying to deny it.

"Those devices are called lie detectors for a reason Mr. Wilde, now spill whatever's on your minds." Z said ordering Nick.

Nick hesitated for a moment. "I-it's just something that happened a while ago but it's still been hard to get off my mind."

"Oh yea, and what's that?"

"Finnick."

" _Finnick_ , you mean that fennec fox friend of yours?"

"Yea."

"But you two seem to have been friends with each other for years, why the sudden change now?"

"He just did something I never thought he would ever do."

Even Z started to get interested in what Nick was saying. "What did he do Mr. Wilde?" He asked.

"He shot someone."

"He shot someone, who did he shoot?"

"He shot a lion I think his name was Jet or something, it was during the time back at the Claw street shootout." Nick said. "It was just something I saw right before my own eyes, and I still can't help but feel he could have done something different that day."

"But Mr. Clawhauser was involved in something similar to that not too long after that incident, and that ended up taking the lives of two of my mammals." Z said. "So why would you not feel anything for him?"

"The incident with Clawhauser is a different story since it was either do or die for him if he didn't do anything about it." Nick explained. "But as for Finnick, he had a chance to shoot Jet anywhere else while he was beating up Danny, but he just shot him straight in the head, no questions asked."

"Hmm, interesting…" Z said nodding his head while thinking about it. "Well Mr. Wilde in times such as those, mammals aren't always able to think right on their feet. I mean if this friend of yours Danny was getting the living life beat out of him, it sounds to me it was just something instinctive he needed to do if he assumed a shot anywhere else wouldn't do the trick."

"Oh sure, instinctive as in 'I see someone getting beaten up so I should just put a bullet in their head' kind of instinctive?"

"I suppose mammals would sometimes think that way then." Z replied. "And who knows, maybe you just didn't know your friend as well as you think you did."

Nick stayed silent, but was too stubborn to face the truth.

"But enough about your friends, let's think about personal things now." Z said. "I've been doing some research on every single one of you five, from your profiles to your family names whether it's from the media or the ZPD files I received when I first met you. I got to admit, all five of you do indeed have some interesting pasts."

"Why would you even be interested in our pasts?"

"First of all, it is something called attacking you from the mind, not the body." Z replied. "After all, how do you think your friends would feel mentally after realizing your lies?"

"I've never lied to them about anything that's serious though!" Nick yelled.

"And second, it helps me understand what kind of mammals you truly are, not what the city thinks you are." Z said. "This city probably thinks you and your partner Judy Hopps are truly the most trustworthy mammals Zootopia has to give, especially after the night howler's incident since you both saved the city from total prejudice against predators such as yourself. But the fact is, what's the point of calling you trustworthy if it's just from doing a job well done? You were a hustler back in the day for Pete sake!"

"But I've changed."

"Maybe as a mammal, but not as yourself." Z said. "Speaking of which, there is one thing I wanted to ask you about yourself."

Nick sighed. "Now what?"

"Why did your father leave?"

Nick was puzzled with what he just asked. "W-where is this coming from?"

"Well I read your file and saw that you had original charges of attempted murder on your father at just the age of twelve, but they were later overturned from technicality."

"Nick had a shocked expression on him. "W-where did you find that case file..."

"The thing you need to know about me Mr. Wilde is that I know a mammal or two for any kind of job I would ask for." Z replied. "But that's just it, isn't it? Your little secret is that you tried to murder your own father isn't it?"

Nick was shivering as his entire body froze, unsure of how to reply to what Z just figured out.

"Oh boy, I think I just hit the jackpot didn't I?" Z said. "So why did you try to do something as horrible as that?"

Nick stayed silent, hoping that Z would give up from trying to get an answer, but he still stared at Nick for an answer. Eventually, he knew he didn't have a choice.

"I…. I never wanted to do anything like that."

"But it seems like you did it anyways." Z said disagreeing. "So what exactly happened that day?"

Nick tried to hold it back, but a tear fell down from him with his head down. "He made me."

* * *

February 22nd, 2017, the next day.

It was around nine pm as Judy, Nick, Finnick, and Clawhauser were all at Danny's place as they agreed on going over there to prepare for whatever kind of trade they had to deal with.

"So how were your interviews with Z last night?" Finnick asked, as the five were watching TV while waiting for the van to show up.

"They could have gone better." Clawhauser replied.

"Z sure does like to ruffle some mammals' tails doesn't he?" Danny asked.

"Tell me about it." Nick replied.

"What kind of questions did he ask you guys?" Judy asked.

"He asked me about my thoughts on you all and if there was anything I wanted to get off my chest." Nick brought up.

"Well, was there anything you wanted to get off your chest?" Danny asked.

"Well, one but it was already dealt with and we were over it." Nick replied. "But I still couldn't get my mind off of that time with the lion back on Claw Street."

"Oh great, this again…." Finnick said slapping his paw on his face.

"Well Finnick I wanted to get it off my mind, but after seeing something like that, that your own friend just did right in front of you is still not easy to get off of, especially after being asked a question such as that when you got a lie detector on you."

"Then just get it off your fricking mind-"

"Alright enough, we get the point!" Judy shouted, interrupting Finnick. "I'm pretty sure all of us had something to get off of our chest, so let's just leave it at that instead of pointing paws at each other."

Finnick shook his head while turning himself. "Forget it." He said.

"Well did he ask anything else to you guys?" Danny asked.

All five of them oddly stayed silent for a moment, while looking at each other to see if someone would respond.

"Come on guys, I'm pretty sure we were all faced with the same problems so we probably all know what he asked us about next." Judy said, trying to speak out the obvious. "Am I right or wrong that all five of us were asked about a secret we had that we didn't want anyone to know about?"

"Yes…" Nick said unproudly.

"Yea." Danny said.

"Mmhm." Clawhauser said.

"Well why would it matter though?" Finnick asked. "I'm sure everyone has things they don't want to share no matter who you're talking to, it's just their own opinion."

"Finnick, please don't tell me you're just saying that because you don't want anyone to know about yours." Danny said, being suspicious of Finnick.

"Eat my tail Danny." Finnick retaliated. "In fact, I could just ask you the same thing right now with what _you_ just said.

"Ok how about this then kitties." Judy said, as he was implying that both of them we're acting stupid. "Does anyone in this room want to tell us his or her secret just so we don't end up holding grudges later on?"

All of them looked at each other once more waiting to see if anyone would volunteer, but sure enough nobody was stepping forward. But after a few more seconds, Clawhauser finally decided to step up.

"Alright fine, I'll say mine since I'm at least the mature one around here." Clawhauser said while standing up. "I'm not ashamed to say this, but he figured out a secret of mine which is that I'm bisexual."

All the mammals in the rooms' eyes widened after hearing that.

"Oh…." Judy said, while still trying to think about what he just said.

"Well, that's not so bad of a secret." Danny said. "Why would want to hide something like that?"

"More importantly though, how did Z even figure that out?" Finnick asked.

"I-it's not that I wanted to hide it, it's just…." Clawhauser said hesitating silently. "I didn't know how my friends or family would even take it. I guess I always worried that they wouldn't accept who I am if I ever told them. I mean they've always assumed that I was into girls and I went along with it, but that basically means I've been lying to them this entire time…"

"Clawhauser…." Judy said. "Just because you think something like that doesn't mean that's what will actually happen, you should just try first and see how it goes."

Clawhauser sighed. "It's not as easy as it sounds Judy, I've learned that the hard way."

"Still though, I don't seem to quite understand how Z could've figured that out." Finnick said.

"Maybe Z knew Clawhauser never had a file or report on him his entire life, so he must have ended up going somewhere else to look deeper into him." Judy theorized.

"Where would that have been?" Danny asked.

"I don't know, Clawhauser?" Judy asked, turning her head back towards Clawhauser.

"It may have been my sisters'." Clawhauser replied. "She was the only other mammal who knew about this. I think she's got a few photo albums I don't think my parents ever looked at which would show the truth. Plus she is currently locked up somewhere because of Z so he probably knew nobody was in there to spot them while they were probably snooping."

"Well, it does seem to be pretty reasonable for him to have done that if he wanted to find information." Nick said.

Just then, they heard a knock on the door as all five of the immediately knew what that knocking meant. Danny went over to the door and opened it, as they saw Biggy in front of him.

"Alright mammals, it's time let's go." Biggy said. "Get your stuff on and make sure your voice changing collars are still activated."

The rest of the mammals then got up from the chairs and started to walk out of the door, until Judy was starting to hesitate to walk. Nick noticed it and approached her to see what was up.

"You okay there carrots?" Nick asked.

"Yea it's just… We've never had very good luck with any of these jobs." Judy replied.

"Well think of it like this then." Nick said. "Maybe with all the bad luck that we've had so far, it could be that we're bound to have good luck soon right?"

Judy started to feel a little more positive. "Yea, I guess so."

Nick smiled. "That a girl. Come on, let's go."

* * *

"So where is this trade being taken place?" Finnick asked, as he and the others were in Biggy's van driving to the deal.

"Aloe Avenue, it's in Sahara square." Biggy replied.

"Yes I know what district it is in." Finnick said.

"We're nearly there though so I suggest you prepare yourselves." Biggy said.

The five decided to take Biggy's advice and zipped up their hoodies, while turning on their voice changing collars. Finnick, on the other hand took out his gun to make sure it was loaded.

 **"** **Finnick, what are you doing?"** Judy asked with her voice changing collar on.

 **"** **What does it look like I'm doing?"** Finnick replied.

Judy sighed. **"Let's not assume this is something that's going to end up like last time. You heard Z, they don't care what we look like or how we act."**

 **"** **Hey, you can never be too sure about it."** Finnick said.

 **"** **How about we just make sure it doesn't come to that then."**

 **"** **Hey I'm just making sure the odds will be more in our favour if it still does happen."**

Judy shook her head and decided to ignore it, knowing that it was a pointless to continue debating with Finnick. Biggy then pulled into the alleyway of the street they were supposed to be doing the trade.

"Alright, so here's what you got to do." Biggy said. "You get out, turn to the right of this alleyway, meet with the buyers, hand them these weapons in the two bags, get the money and come back here to drive away. Sound good?" He asked as the five nodded. "Alright then move it."

The five then got out of the back of the van with the weapons and started walking towards the alleyway. Once they approached the alleyway they were supposed to turn on, they noticed a group of mammals staring at their direction. The five instantly knew they were the buyers. They then slowly approached them while carrying the two bags of weapons with them. Once they got close enough, there was an awkward silence between the two groups, until there was a few chuckles heard from the buyers.

 **"** **What's so funny?"** Clawhauser asked.

"Nothing, it's just that you five sure do look pretty appealing to us." A mammal on the other side said. "Now then onto business, have you got our weapons?"

Clawhauser picked up the two bags of weapons and held it out to them.

 **"** **What about the money?"** Nick asked.

The wolf on the other side snapped his paws signaling an otter on the other side to bring another bag forward.

"We'll bring one for each side." The wolf said.

 **"** **I'll go."** Clawhauser said.

 **"** **Sure."** Danny said.

Clawhauser then picked up the two bags filled with weapons and started walking over to the buyers, while the otter on the other side was bringing the case of money to Judy, Nick, Finnick, Danny and Clawhauser's side. Once both sides confirmed everything was in the bags, the otter and Clawhauser walked back to their respecting sides.

"We're done here." The wolf said.

Judy and the others suddenly felt surprised after hearing those words. **"Oh, um… you sure?"** Judy asked.

The wolf rolled his eyes. "Rookies I'll bet." He whispered to an antelope. "You go first, and we go second and whatever way you go back, we're going the opposite and that's that. Are we clear?" The wolf asked.

Judy and the others nodded. They then started walking back to the van, meanwhile the buyers then started walking the other way of the alley.

"So, how did it go?" Biggy asked, as the five mammals were walking back inside the back of the van.

 **"** **It went faster than we thought."** Judy said.

"Guys we're finished with the trade and those guys are long gone, you could lose the hoodies and voices now." Biggy said.

 **"** **Oh, yea I guess so."** Nick said, as he and the others unzipped their hoodies and turned off their voice changing collars.

"So yea it went faster than I thought." Judy repeated.

"That's because nobody started asking questions this time." Biggy informed.

"Probably." Finnick said.

"Let's just get out of here already." Nick said. "I may never act like it, but a mammal like me does need some sleep as well."

Biggy chuckled. "Sure thing." He said as he started the car up.

As they were being driven back, most of them couldn't get a certain thing off their mind. They all wondered how many more of these they would have to do until they were finally let go along with their relatives.

"Nick?" Judy whispered.

"Yea?" Nick replied.

"Are we ever going to know when we're finished with this?"

Nick thought about it as well and sighed knowing that he doesn't even know. He didn't want Judy to take it the wrong way, so he tried to give her a positive smile, even though he knew she probably saw through it.

* * *

The first thing Judy did when she got back into her apartment room was taking off all the equipment she had to wear, including the hoodie, as well as the voice collar and laid down flat on her bed.

By the time she sat back up, she was surprised to see it had been ten minutes since she laid down. She wondered why she was down for so long, but assumed that all the thoughts going through her head about what she was forcefully put into was getting to her. She thought it would calm her mind more if she just had a glass of some carrot juice before she went to bed.

Once she finished drinking her juice, she changed into her pajamas and went back into her bed getting into her covers while trying to get whatever sleep she could get after tonight. She even assumed she could get better sleep now that a trade she and her friends had to do actually went right, but the fact that she was doing the trade itself still kept a sick feeling inside her stomach.

But there was still something in her mind that she couldn't stop thinking about. She decided to sit up from her bed for a second to make sure _it_ was still there. She opened a drawer from under her bed and pulled out a shoe box. When she opened it, she couldn't help but continue to stare at the forty-thousand dollarz right in front of her eyes.

 _"_ _I knew this was a bad idea."_ Judy thought. _"But nobody can blame me right? When you're put under pressure such as this, it's necessary to be looking out for yourself and others around you, right?"_

Judy sighed. "Just in case." She mumbled while closing up the box. "Just in case….."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 24, Aggressive Choices**


	25. Aggressive Choices

**Chapter 24: Aggressive Choices**

October 3rd, 2016, minutes after the shootout incident at the Cliffside Asylum

He swam higher and higher up, until he would be able to breath once more after jumping from such a high height of a waterfall. When Clawhauser was above the surface, he caught his breath before looking around to see if Judy was anywhere to be seen.

"JUDY, JUDY!" He yelled out loud. "JUDY, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Just then, he heard something resurface from the water behind him.

"Clawhauser!" Judy called out. "Come on, let's head towards the land that way!" She yelled while pointing to the nearest land.

The two then started to swim over to the land where as soon as they got there, both of them laid flat on their backs on the sand while trying to catch their breaths.

"Remind me….. to never….. do that again…." Clawhauser said, as he was still panting.

"Same….." Judy said panting as well. "I think…. Two times is my limit…."

After another five minutes of hyperventilating on the ground, both of them slowly started to get up once they heard the sirens from high up approaching them.

"We need to get out of here before the police do Judy." Clawhauser advised. "Do you still have my collar?"

"Yea, right here." Judy said, as she took one of the collars inside the plastic bag to make sure it would get wet when they dove into the water.

"Okay good, now let's stay on the side of the water so we don't leave any footprints and-" Clawhauser said before pausing himself as he saw what Judy was still carrying. "Hold on, you still have that case Drew and his guys gave you?"

"Well of course, we couldn't have just left it there to make it even more evidence than there is right now inside that building." Judy said pointing upwards.

Clawhauser sighed. "Yea you're probably right, come on which way would you say is the fastest way out of here?"

"Well the last time I did this, me and Nick discovered some rusty stairs just down this road so if we aren't spotted, we could get out of here before they do spot us."

"Nice, let's go then."

As they were running towards it, Judy couldn't help but think about what she was carrying in her paws right now, as it was probably the most amount of money she would be seeing in her lifetime. Once they found the stairs, they sped up as fast as they could before the ZPD would be able to discover it. When they were all the way up, they zipped up their hoodies to make no one nearby would be able to see them in the dark. When they were far away enough from the Asylum and all the other cop cars, they knew they could start walking again instead of sprinting.

"Wait, just stop for a second Judy…." Clawhauser said, still continuing to pant from the running.

"What is it?" Judy asked.

"Where are we supposed to go now?"

"Well Z must have heard about what happened here by now on the news, so we may as well go back to the warehouse so he knows that at least we made it out along with the money."

"Well, I guess that's a start."

As they were continuing to walk back, Clawhauser noticed Judy opening the case and going through it which caught his attention.

"Uh Judy, what are you doing?" Clawhauser asked.

Judy looked up almost instantly after realizing Clawhauser was looking at her going through the case. "Uh…. Well I was just making sure all the money was in here since I wanted to be sure we had it all for Z to deliver." She explained.

Clawhauser wasn't fully confident in what she was telling him seeing as how she hesitated, but he decided to shrug it off. However, once Clawhauser turned around again continuing to walk, Judy slid some of the money she took from the case into her back pocket and closed up the case good enough to make sure no one would notice that anything would have been stolen.

" _This is probably one of the only opportunities I'll ever get for this, I can't just throw all of it away to that mammal."_ Judy thought. _"If Z somehow comes back from this incident after probably such a hit to his business, this may be useful if push really does come to shove."_

* * *

March 15th, 2017, three weeks after their first successful weapons trade

"Yo bro, have you been hearing all these crazy rumors on the street lately?" A mammal asked another mammal, as they were sipping on some beer outside a bar.

"I hear a lot of stuff mammal (man), you might need to be a little more specific than that."

"Okay, well do you know about all those crazy missing mammal cases, and all those shooting occasions happening all around the city lately?"

"What about em? I hear whoever the mammals were that manufactured those types of weapons are probably off the grid by now since they couldn't handle all the heat. Not just that, it sounds to me like a lot of their own crew was getting killed in the process."

"Well word is on the street that they're back in business again."

The mammal's eyes widened. "You're not kidding, are ya?"

"Well, at least that's what I've heard. Now don't quote me on this, but I hear at least seven trades have already been done in secret to my knowledge in just the past three weeks or so."

"God damn, sure sounds like a good handful for just a few weeks don't you think?"

"Yea, and hearing it from multiple sources makes it highly unlikely now that this is just another phony rumor."

"Do the ZPD know anything about these rumors?"

"No, not to my knowledge at least. But nobody's going to tell the ZPD squat even if anyone does hear rumors. You know why?" He asked, as the other mammal shrugged. "Because their afraid. They've _all_ heard about those mammals that have gone missing and their connections to it. They probably wouldn't want to end up on the billboard at the ZPD's missing mammals section if you ask me."

"Hey, wouldn't that include us as well then now?"

The other mammal laughed. "I guess it would, wouldn't it? But hey, I've also been hearing another rumor around the streets regarding the trades from a few of the sources I got it from."

"What is it?"

"Apparently at least two or three sources I've heard from recall seeing the dealers that gave them the guns masked well up all the way to their faces, you can't even tell what kind of species they are. And get this, they gave this group a name."

"A name? And what would this name be?"

" _The mysterious five."_

"The mysterious five? The hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Now they may not be showing their faces, but the funny part about them is that they all have an art picture put on the hoodie right where their faces are."

"Get out, are you actually being serious right now?"

"I _am_ actually serious dude. They say they got one with a microphone, one with a carrot, one with a pawpsicle, one with a pizza slice, and one with a headset drawing on their hoodies."

"These guys sound more like comedy acts than weapon dealers to me bro. I mean what kind of mammals would possibly even think about going to those deals with that on?"

* * *

Finnick, Danny, Judy, Nick, and Clawhauser decided to try and get a quick bite somewhere after they were finished with the deal they just did, so they found a nearby sandwich place named Furway and took off the supplies they used before they went in.

"This was our third one now wasn't it?" Clawhauser asked, as the five were sitting around the table eating their sandwiches.

" _Well technically fifth if you alsho count the ones on Claw Shtreet and the Cliffshide Ashylum."_ Judy said with food in her mouth.

"Those ones weren't quite what I would call a successful trade though Judy."Clawhauser said disagreeing.

"Well, they still count regardless Clawhauser." Nick said.

Clawhauser sighed and decided to continue eating his sandwiches.

"So, did Z ever mention to anyone about when we would be finished with this work he's got us doing?" Danny asked. "Like, maybe in one of their interviews with him or something?"

"Which reminds me by the way, does anyone else want to come forward with their little secret of some sort yet?" Clawhauser asked, as the others stayed silent. "No takers huh, of course."

Danny tried to rub off what Clawhauser just brought up. "A-as I was saying, did anyone ever get a single clue of information from Z when they were chatting with him that night?"

"Well everything he and I asked about each other had nothing to do the shall I say, 'business' so who knows, maybe he doesn't even have a specific time yet."

"I know, how about we go ask him, instead of sitting around here like idiots eating sandwiches and wondering about it?"

Danny chuckled. "You make it sound like it's so easy."

"Well it is." Finnick stammered. "Come on guys, do you think Z would know better by now than to shoot a mammal in the head for asking a question like _that_ to him? Besides, I would call him if I wanted to, but when I tried to with that number one, one, three, two, three which is his business number, no one was picking up."

Nick shrugged. "He probably would if you ask me."

"Oh really, care to explain why then?"

"Well he shot my mother for no apparent reason, so there's that." Nick replied, as he was sipping on his drink.

"Well what did you expect was going to happen then Nick?" Finnick asked. "I mean we lied to him about something that seemed to be a pretty big deal to him."

"Finnick, are you actually trying to justify a mammal that intentionally shot my mom in the head right before my very eyes?"

"Hey, don't talk like you're the only one who's lost someone here Nick." Finnick snapped back. "My mother died as well along the way."

"Yea, well you see mammals die of sickness, but you don't usually see very many mammals get shot in the head lately do ya?"

"Are you seriously looking to pick a fight here right now Nick?" Finnick asked starting to get aggravated.

"Typical, you guys are fussing over like kits again on something you're seeming to make a big deal out of." Danny said. "But Finnick does have a point though Nick, I don't see the harm in asking him about something like that if it means no harm to him. I would like to know when my mother can come out as well."

"What, you're taking Finnick's side on this now?" Nick said becoming frustrated.

"I'm not taking any sides here Nick, but I'm just thinking about the most logical move we got here right now."

" _Logical."_ Nick said mumbling. "Judy, Clawhauser, what do you guys think?"

Judy and Clawhauser paused for a moment to think about it. "Well Nick, I would want to know as well about when we're finished with this." Clawhauser said. "I mean, my sister is still locked inside a cage somewhere, and I just want to know how much more I need to do in order to ensure her safety."

Nick was shaking his head, as he couldn't believe everyone was going against him on this. He turned his head towards Judy, hoping she would agree with him. "Judy?" He asked silently.

Judy stretched her ears back after being pressured to take a side in this. She knew one side was logical, but another side was emotional. She then finally stood up, but oddly started to pack up her things which caught the other four's attention.

"Judy, what are you doing?" Finnick asked.

"What does it look like I'm doing, I'm finished with my sandwich aren't I?" Judy asked.

Finnick looked at her in disbelief. "But we're still waiting for you to respond here, you can't just walk away and think that we can assume an answer-"

"I'm choosing not to answer it Finnick." Judy said, interrupting Finnick. "Guys what is this anyways? We have to choose a side now apparently? There are no sides between us, there can't be. I don't want to see us separate into opinions like the way we are right now. We all decide on one thing and that's that, not….. this." She said as the other four still couldn't think of anything to say. "Now you four can debate all you want but I'm not going to be a part of it, sorry." She said as she was walking out the door.

Finnick then glared over to Nick. "Way to go genius, you just had to be so braggy about things that you make that happen."

"You started it." Nick argued back. "But Judy's right, we can't have sides between us otherwise it'll never work out between us five."

"Nick, it's just a simple question to Z, you don't even have to look at that guys face if you don't want to, just let us do the talking." Danny said.

Nick still wouldn't respond.

Finnick sighed. "Forget it guys, we can just go now and tell him about it we're finished."

As Finnick got up and started to pack his things, Danny and Clawhauser followed along with him since they knew perfectly well where they were moving on too. Nick on the other hand, stay seated since tricks we're still being played on his mind with whether he should go or not. As Finnick was prepared to go, he stepped in front of Nick one more time.

"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Finnick asked, but with no answer. He nodded slightly to himself. "Very well then."

When Finnick, Danny, and Clawhauser packed up all their things, they started walking to the door. But just as they were about to exit, Nick called out to them.

"Wait!" The three turned themselves around to face Nick again. Nick laid his paw on his head, seeming to be very resistant as to what was trying to come out of his mouth. "…. I'll meet you three in the car."

Finnick smiled. " _I knew he would change his mind."_ He thought, as he continued walking out the door.

* * *

They knew around this time, Z would either be in two places since by now they understood he was sort of a batmammal kind of deal. By day he was a normal mammal walking the streets of Zootopia, but by night he's a crime boss that continues with menacing plans of whatever deals he has to make with his weapons organization.

The first place would be at Jerry's cheesecake store where a few months back, they were lead down to a secret bunker underneath the shop to be used as a storage area in case if they needed to keep their weapons somewhere for safe keeping. The other place would be the bunker under the warehouse in the rainforest district, where they mostly went if ever having to prepare for a deal or trade they were required to do.

They stopped by the cheesecake store first since it was close to the Furway to see if he was there, but they were informed by the owner Jerry that he wasn't there. However, he did say he would usually be doing some work at the warehouse in the rainforest district around this time, so they decided to drive over to see if he was there.

When they got to the warehouse, they could already see a few cars parked outside of it, making the four certain that at least someone was inside here. As they were walking down through the trapdoor, they could already hear voices coming from the other side of the door. Finnick approached the door first and knocked on it.

 _"_ _Who is it?"_ A mammal asked on the other side of the door.

"This is Finnick, along with Nick, Danny and Clawhauser, we just came here to ask Z something."

There was silence for a moment before the mammal on the other side responded. " _Why didn't you just use our number instead of coming all the way here?"_

"Nobody was answering, so we just decided to talk to him in-mammal." Finnick answered.

There was still no response for a few moments. "What's taking so long?" Danny whispered.

"They're probably just trying to look over what Finnick just said and see if it's true or not." Nick replied.

 _"_ _Alright, give us a second_." The Mammal on the other side said, as they heard the door in front of them unlock and open. "Follow me to Z's office, but this better be quick, because he's in the middle of a few arrangements right now."

"It depends on what way you want to look at it." Clawhauser said.

"And we apologize for the inconvenience of having you come here to ask your question." The mammal said. "Z's assistant Britney would usually be the one to answer or receive the calls, but she was taking work off today since it was her little boy's birthday. Nobody must have heard the phone ringing when you called."

They then began walking inside the room. Not too many of the mammals in the room gave the four a good look as they were glaring at them, as they still believed they were the ones at fault for losing some of their colleagues. The four thought it would best if they didn't make any eye contact while they were walking to Z's office.

When they made it to Z's office, the leopard knocked on the door with the four mammals hoping he would answer.

 _"_ _Who is it?" Z said inside his office._

"It's some of those mammals you got working for you to do some of those deals, they got to wear those goofy looking hoodies on them with the art pictures on their face?"

 _"_ _Oh, those guys."_ Z said after figuring it out. _"Alright, send them in, but they_ _better be quick."_

"Yes sir." The leopard said obeying Z's orders while opening the door for the four. "I'll be outside, but just make sure whatever you're asking him is quick." He said to the four, as they were walking inside.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here visiting me." Z said grinning. "The irony in this is that usually this would be the other way around, but the fact that it isn't like this makes it very peculiar…. Care to explain what this is all about?"

"Well Z let me just get to the point here." Finnick said. "You see, we've done about five or so deals for you now, and maybe a couple of them didn't end the way you wanted it to, but all in all you got what you wanted in the end, am I right?"

"In a manner of speaking." Z replied.

"Well you see, it's only been about three weeks now and you've already had us do three separate weapon trades through that time." Finnick stated. "But the problem we're is that we haven't been seeing an end of the tunnel here."

Z was a little puzzled. "What?"

Finnick rolled his eyes, annoyed Z didn't get the metaphor. "What I'm saying is that you haven't really given us a clear time on when we're finished and done with you."

"Oh, that." Z said, sounding a little annoyed.

"Well so, can you tell us when we can end this work with you or what?" Clawhauser asked.

Z started scratching the back of his head, know they may not like the answer. "Well to tell you the truth boys, that sort of thought hasn't really been something that I've been thinking about lately."

"What, what do you mean it isn't something you've been thinking about?" Danny asked.

"Well first of all, I've got an entire business to run here so silly thoughts such as that never tend to bounce around my head when I'm working." Z replied. "Second, you five have been doing a pretty good job of it so far in the past few weeks that I don't see why I had to be thinking about that at all."

"This is not something we're making a career out of Z, this is something you're making us do." Nick said deeply. "What, you think this is something we want to be doing? That this is something big as in, going out of the law kind of big we would want to have to work for?"

Z shrugged. "I suppose not. But the way this business has been beginning to expand once more, if you really want to know how much longer you may be doing these jobs for, I'd say about a year, maybe more."

"A YEAR?!" All four of them shouted at once.

"Are you insane, we can't do a job like this for an entire year!" Clawhauser shouted.

"Well like I said, you all have been doing a pretty fine job of it in the past few weeks so I don't see what the big deal is." Z said, trying to reason with them.

"Look, what Clawhauser is trying to say is that we don't think it's fair with you having us continue this sort of work for so long." Nick said. "You seriously think any of us would want to stick around after all the stuff you've put us through?"

"Eh, maybe not but…. But that's not the point." Z said hesitating a bit. "It's just, with all the new business coming in, it's not just you five that will need to be doing the deals. This all takes time, and mammals to make those deals. And if I'm unable to have all those, then we won't be able to have enough money to keep this business from going anywhere than it is right now."

"Well, what's wrong with right now?" Danny asked.

"Nothing is wrong with right now, actually." Z replied, as the others weren't understanding him. "But the thing about me regarding business is that enough, is never enough."

"This is preposterous." Clawhauser said. "You can't simply expect us to accept this stupidity you're talking here! WE WANT TO DO THIS, AND WE WANT TO BE OVER WITH IT, THAT'S IT."

"Yes, well your definition of being over with it and that's it, is a little bit different when it comes to my standards Mr. Clawhauser." Z claimed. "Business is business, and sometimes you got to make tough choices such as your case. If you don't like it then we could always do what we did to Nick's mother again to your relatives, well, whoever's left at least if that's what it takes."

"BAM."

Nick hit his paw hard onto the desk, as he stood up filled with rage after what Z just said. Z thought he may have taken what he said a little too far. He put his hoof up in front of Nick as a sign of peace.

"Calm down Mr. Wilde." Z said calmly. "Now as I was saying, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you but this is how it's going to work with you five if you ever want to be let off the leash from us."

"What about our relatives?" Danny asked.

"What about them?" Z asked back.

"Well, aren't they going to as you say, be let off the leash as well?"

Z laughed. "Probably not."

The four couldn't believe what they just heard.

"Excuse me?" Clawhauser questioned.

"I'm sorry, but that's all the time I've got for you four today since I got to get back to work." Z informed.

"Wait just hold on a sec-"

"Do I have to ask you four again?" Z asked, interrupting Finnick. Z then called out to the leopard outside. "Richard, get them out of here!"

"No, nonononono hold on, what do you mean by probably not Z?" Danny asked.

Richard started coming into the room, along with a few other mammals to help him.

"What does that mean though Z?" Danny asked once more as he was being pulled away. "WHAT DOES IT MEAN Z?!"

The four were then dragged out of the room by Z's mammals and were forced to continue making their way back outside. When they were brought back outside, some of Z's mammals already had their guns drawn on them.

"Now if you five even _think_ about opening that trapdoor again for the remainder of this night, I'm pretty sure you know what's going to happen next." Richard threatened, as him and the rest of Z's mammals started walking back through the trapdoor without Finnick, Nick, Danny, and Clawhauser.

"Well this was such a big help wasn't it?" Nick said sarcastically.

"W-what the hell did he mean when he said probably not when we asked if the rest of our relatives were going to be let go as well?" Danny said panicking. "WHAT THE HELL DID HE MEAN?!"

"Danny, Danny, calm down!" Clawhauser shouted in front of Danny, trying to keep him cool.

"They've had my mother stuck in whatever cell they put her in for _four_ frickin months now!" Danny howled. "FOUR MONTHS! I can't have her go through this anymore because of me, I can't…. I can't, I can't, I can't, can't, can'tcan'tcan'tcan't CAN'T!"

"Danny, pull yourself together already, you're losing it!" Finnick shouted.

"I swear to god I don't ever see her again because of that psychotic zebra, I'LL RIP HIS TAIL OFF AND SHOVE IT RIGHT DOWN HIS-!"

"SLAP!"

Danny was slapped by Nick, who couldn't handle anymore shouting coming from him. "Get a grip Danny." Nick told him.

Danny stood there for a few seconds completely speechless. He then fell to his knees, curled up into a ball and burst into tears, whimpering on the ground. The others watched, saddened by the sight at what Z caused him to do.

Clawhauser turned his head towards Finnick and Nick. "Finnick, Nick, you guys get going, I'll get Danny back to his place and see if I can try to cheer him up."

Finnick and Nick were surprised to hear that coming from Clawhauser. "Are you sure Clawhauser?" Nick asked. "I mean we could always just come to assist since there's also the van we needed to take to here and-"

"We'll be fine, just go home and try to get some rest.

Finnick shrugged. "Whatever you say then."

"Wha- Finnick!" Nick whispered. "We can't just leave them like this, they're our friends."

"Yes, and one of our friends just offered to help them without needing any assistance." Finnick said. "So it seems to me there really isn't anything to worry about, especially when that friend offering to help is Clawhauser.

Nick thought about it. "Well, you do make a good point with the friend being Clawhauser, I'll give you that." Nick said while exhaling deeply, thinking about siding with Finnick for once on this. "Alright fine, let's just get to the van."

Finnick and Nick slowly walked back to the van as they heard the whimpering howls of Danny weaken, as they continued walking. When they reached the van, both Nick and Finnick hopped into it and started driving back onto the street, before seeing a glimpse of Clawhauser trying to comfort Danny while still trying to get him to stand back up. Nick never liked to see someone like that in pain, especially when that someone was his friend. He tried to get it off his mind, as he turned his head around to the front of the van again while they were driving back to the city to go home.

* * *

Later that night.

The Tundratown bars were where most of the polar bears would go to get a drink. It was also the main place where most of Mr. Big's Henchmammals would go for one too. Kevin, who was one of Mr. Big's mammals was indeed also having a drink with a few of his friends.

"Want to go for another round there Kevin?" A polar bear friend of Kevin asked.

"Nah I'm good, I think I've had a little one too many as it is boys." Kevin replied. Just then, his phone started to ring. "Oh hold up you guys, I got to take this."

Kevin went out the back of the bar so he could be sure no one was disturbing his privacy with the call. "Che cos'è?" He said in italian. "Non ti ho detto prima, signore, quel lavoro è già stato affrontato. Va bene, va bene bene, tornerò domani mattina per chiedergli dove i soldi che deve a noi è. si, lo prometto-!"

Just then, he heard the sound of a click coming from behind his back. He turned around curious to know what that sound was, but knew instantly he was too slow to react.

"BANG!"

He was shot in the leg, causing him to drop to the ground.

"OOOWWWWW!" He cried.

The mammal with the gun slowly walked towards him and fired more shots at him.

"BANG, BANG!"

The mammal shot him straight through the very end of the right side of his waist, as well as his left shoulder.

"COSA DIAVOLO VUOI?!" Kevin shouted.

 **"** **English, please."** The hooded mammal said clicking their gun, and aiming towards Kevin's head this time.

"I SAID WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" Kevin repeated.

 **"** **Oh it's not what I want, it's what Z wants."** The mammal replied.

"Z?!"Kevin shrieked. "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?! US AND Z'S GROUP HAVE ALREADY AGREED TO STAY OFF EACH OTHERS TERRITORY!"

 **"** **Things change sir."** The mammal said. **"I'm not here to kill you, I'm just here playing as a message for Z."**

"BANG!"

The mammal had shot Kevin again, this time in the right arm as Kevin continued to howl.

 **"** **Now here is what you're going to do."** The mammal said kneeling towards Kevins head with the gun still on him. **"You're going to tell Mr. Big about what happened here, who the mammal was that sent me, and that** ** _we_** **are now in control of whatever territory we want no questions about it. Either that, or we will go into his house and SLAUGHTER THE WHOLE LOT OF YA! Understand?"** The mammal asked, as Kevin wasn't responding. **"UNDERSTAND?!"**

Kevin slowly, and shiverringly nodded to the hooded mammal as he was too afraid to look him in the eye. The mammal then stood up and put their gun back.

 **"** **That's what I like to see."** The mammal said, as Kevin saw the hooded mammal walking away.

Not too long after the mammal had left, another mammal had to talk to someone as well in the back of the bar, and noticed Kevin laying on the floor puddled with blood. As the mammal started to dial nine, one, one, Kevin started to get a little dizzy and not too soon afterward had his eyes closed unconcious.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 25, Understanding Your Mistakes**


	26. Understanding Your Mistakes

**Chapter 25: Understanding Your Mistakes**

March 16th, 2017, the next day

Coroner street was a street around downtown where most of Z's mammals would frequently go, but mainly just to talk about things happening socially, or even if they wanted to get something of their chest to someone. Z himself knew some of his mammals would usually go there especially for those reasons, but it never occured to him to go there himself as he saw no need to be talking with them about anything that wasn't about business.

It was night time and two of Z's mammals, a giraffe and a porcupine happened to be there.

"Say Lewis, did you hear about what happened on the news earlier this morning?" The porcupine asked.

"What, you mean that polar bear in critical condition that was found shot at a few times outside by some bar?" Lewis asked.

"Yea that one."

"Oh everybody has heard about it by now Marco, even Z knows."

"Well, do you know who did it?"

"I have know idea, nobody knows actually." Lewis replied. "Z has asked nearly everybody in the entire crew by now, even those five mammals he's forcing to work for us, but all of them deny having any involvement in that little episode last night."

"Well someone's got to be lying then, it's obvious whoever attacked that polar bear was using one of our guns." Marco said. "And as for the ZPD, they can't get heads or tails on what started it. Whoever that mammal was, he or she must have known about that certain location, and where a blind spot would be for security cameras if he didnt want to get caught on tape. The police are unsure of the motive, but all the polar bear claimed was that he saw nothing, and was not able to know the species of the mammal, based on the voice."

"Sounds like a cold case to me then." Lewis said. "But if you ask me Marco, it was probably just one of our mammals who had too much to drink that night, got into an argument with that polar bear and went AWOL. Maybe whoever did it just doesn't want to say since they don't want to make a big deal out of it."

"We can assume that yes, but I doubt that would be considered what _exactly_ happened."

"Okay maybe it isn't perfectly true, but got to admit it's the best theory anyone could think of."

"Maybe." Marco said giggling. "Alright I think I'm going to head back to my crib, it's getting a little late out."

"Alright, see you around then."

As Marco was starting to walk out of the alleyways, he noticed some dim red and blue lights coming off the wall. He swiftly started walking back to where Lewis was after realizing the police were nearby.

"Marco, what are you doing back here?" Lewis asked.

"Don't freak out, but I believe the police are most likely right behind us right now."

Lewis turned around surprise to also see the red and blue lights from the wall. "What do we do?"

"Let's just play it cool, maybe it's not what we think it is." Marco replied, as they started hearing footsteps coming their way. When they turned around, they were approached by a sheep in a police uniform.

"Evening gentlemammals." The officer said. "Hanging around these areas at this sort of time are we?"

"Uh officer, we didn't do anything wrong if that's what you're wondering." Marco said, trying to sound calm.

"As a matter of fact, I have reasons to believe you did." The officer said.

"W-what could we have possibly done officer?" Lewis asked nervously, as he was reaching for his gun behind him.

The officer continued giving a serious look. "There's a van just off the corner of the alleyway parked by a no parking zone, do you two folks know anything about that?"

Both of them silently exhaled of relief, while pulling away from the guns they were planning to take out. "No sir, we came here by foot." Marco said.

The sheep officer nodded. "Very well then, as you were…..?" He said hesitating, as he saw a vehicle stopping right in front of the alleyway.

Marco and Lewis turned around as well to see what the officer was looking at, only to witness the van as well right in front of them. The van then started to back up oddly into the alleyway, as it caused the three mammals to back up as well.

"Is that one of yours there boys?" The officer asked.

"Um, it doesn't seem to appear all very familiar, no." Lewis replied.

"Sir in the van, please state your business immediately!" The officer shouted. "This is a no parking zone, I'm asking you to back away from here now!"

"Are you sure that isn't one of ours?" Marco whispered to Lewis.

"If it was, I would've heard about the arrangements with the van at least, somethings not right here."

"Should we just beat it then?"

" _No,_ we don't want to be acting skeptical to that cop, let's just hold our ground until whatever this is, is finished." Lewis suggested.

The van was not moving, nor was anyone inside it responding.

The Sheep officer took out his radio and turned it on. "This is officer Pancho, we may have a ten-forty on our paws, suspicious van approaching the alleyway I'm in, backup is requested."

 _"_ _Copy that ten-forty, sending backup your way."_ The mammal on the other end replied.

"Copy that." The officer said.

Officer Pancho started to slowly move towards the van and knocked on it a few times, but there was still no response. But he knew before he were to continue to investigate the van, he needed the two mammals to leave for safety precautions. He made his way back over to Marco and Lewis to tell them about the situation.

"Listen, I'm going to need you two to leave because this seems to be turning into a police matter now so-"

Just then, the back door of the van was kicked open. As the three faced their eyes upon what was seen in front of them, they knew it was already too late.

"BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!"

Inside the van was a wolf, and a Lewis M1914 as he was unloading the hundred rounds onto the three mammals. After there were no more bullets, the back van doors closed and the van sped off, driving away from the alleyway leaving Marco, Lewis, and officer Pancho on the floor still.

A few minutes later, sirens were heard in the distance from the alleyway. Pancho, who suffered multiple bullets to his body was still able to continue breathing air through his lungs. But when he started to see more colours of red and blue nearing him, his sight began to fade from him as he reached for the help that was near him before closing his eyes, and not reopening them.

* * *

March 17th, 2017, the next day

"A MACHINE GUN?!" Z yelled, as he was in the rainforest district warehouse hearing about what had just happened last night.

"It's all over the news Z, even a cop was killed in that alleyway for Christ sake." A mammal of Z's said.

"But Grant, I have two more of my mammals dead back there and there isn't even an explanation behind this giant mess?!" Z shouted.

"The police are still trying to figure out the motive behind this attack." Grant said. "When it comes to cases such as those, it isn't just like flicking on the light in order to solve it Z."

"Yes, yes I know but…." Z said, walking back and forth feeling frustrated. "Obviously because of this tragedy that recently happened, the ZPD must now be fully aware this business is up and running again. They can't get enough evidence based on whatever they examined at the crime scene to figure this all out, but it does mean now they will be on high alert for a quite a long time again. They probably would even assume we've been doing this business the entire four months we were out."

"Well on the bright side, don't you think it's possible the citizens would be starting to panic, now that situations such as these have popped up again?" Grant asked. "Think about it, with the citizens all distracted from asking questions or depending on the police, the ZPD may have more to worry about than us at the moment."

"I don't want to think of this as, like you said, some sort of bright side because it isn't Grant, no matter how hard I want it to be." Z said disagreeing with the wolf. "Now whoever did this attack on Lewis and Marco couldn't have just been a coincidence. They _specifically_ backed up into that alleyway because they knew certain mammals would be there, mammals like mine!"

"Yea, your right…." Grant said, thinking about it. "But what kind of mammals would have known about our locations, but not say a word to the ZPD about it?"

"I don't know, but considering the fact that we don't manufacture M1914's, it had to have been a group that doesn't quite obey the law as well."

"Z, why would some other group even want to do this to us?" Grant asked. "There is no benefit to it, nor was there even ever a motive!"

"No, that's not entirely true." Z said, contradicting the wolf. "I'm certain none of this can all just be a coincidence."

"What, what are you talking about?"

"Think about it, a polar bear shot behind a bar without any reasoning behind it for whoever did it, and now suddenly the next night a van with a machine gun inside opens fire on specifically _my_ workers?" Z stated. "Something is not right here…."

Just then, Z's phone started to ring. When he took his phone out to see who it was, it was from a number not even he knew. He didn't have a very good feeling about who the caller was, but he decided to answer it to see where the conversation would go.

"This is Zamiel, I'm sorry but I don't have very long to talk so who is this?" Z asked the caller, but with no reply. "Hello, is anyone there? I'm hanging up if there is no response."

 _"_ _Don't act cute Z, you know exactly who this is_." The caller replied.

Z seemed to be a little surprised from the response. _"That voice….. where have I heard that voice before?_ " Z thought.

* * *

"Alright, alright everybody sit, we have a few reports to announce before I hand out assignments." Bogo shouted, as he and the other officers including Judy, and Nick were in the bullpen to receive their assignments. "But before we do I must ask that all of you to rise, as we give a moment of silence for having lost a fine officer of ours last night, officer Pancho."

All the mammals in the bullpen then rose, bowed their heads and stayed silent. After a few moments, the mammals all sat back down.

"Okay, in regards to the two events that had recently unfolded in the past couple days, our evidence is still on a very thin line." Bogo said. "March 15th, we have a polar bear Kevin Sheddy shot multiple times outside the back of a bar in Tundratown." He said, while putting Kevin's picture up on the board, as well as photos from the crime scene. "Now upon further observations based on this case, we have reasons to believe this was no attack out of pure randomness or coincidence."

 _"_ _But why would Z want to do such an attack though on Kevin?"_ Judy thought.

"Whoever attacked that polar bear seemed to have not been there to kill him." Bogo theorized. "Mr. Sheddy claims he was shot to the leg first causing him to drop to the ground, and the attacker went up to him only to be shot three more times, but none of them striking any vital areas. This has lead us to believe he wasn't meant to be murdered, but more as to prove or show something."

" _Prove something, prove what?"_ An officer called out.

"We're still gathering that information, and again this is just a theory here officers." Bogo replied. "Now we did ask for any more information on the attack to the polar bear yesterday after improving from his condition, but he only told us what happened beforehand, and that the attacker was too blurry for him to see who it was."

"Um, what about the security cameras from the bar?" Nick called out raising his paw.

"We asked the owner of the bar for it, but when we looked at them, the angle of the camera didn't show Mr. Sheddy nor any part of the shooter at any of the time that the incident took place."

 _"_ _This can't be right, Z is not the kind of mammal to use these sort of tactics on his enemies, especially on one of Mr. Big's henchmammals."_ Nick thought.

"March 16th, the incident involving an M1914 machine gun from yesterday." Bogo said. "Currently, there is no sign of the van, or the mammals that are responsible for the use of the weapon used at the crime scene. We suspect this was no ordinary attack on a street, but that they had certain targets in mind which were these two." He said holding two pictures up. "Marco Dumin, and Lewis Spots."

 _"_ _Hold on I know those two, aren't those two part of Z's group?"_ Judy thought.

"Both of them were also left with multiple wounds as well, but it isn't the odd part about these two." Bogo explained. "When we examined their bodies at the scene, two USP handguns were found on them."

Numerous whispers started going through the room, as most of them realized what it possibly meant about those two mammals.

"Because of this fact, we have reasons to believe the mammals behind all the previous attacks in this city involving guns are still out there, and still staying active." Bogo continued. "Now we are still unsure why these group of mammals were being targeted by yet another unknown source, but we do ask that you stay on high alert once more through your patrols. That's all I wanted to discuss with everyone for the time being, now onto assignments."

After the meeting had ended, Nick and Judy decided to walk over to the front desk where Clawhauser was so they could all hear their input on the recent events that have unfolded.

"What are your thoughts on all of this Clawhauser?" Nick asked, approaching the desk.

"Zzzzzz…" Clawhauser said, as he was snoring with his head on the keyboard.

"Clawhauser, are you sleeping?" Judy asked, but still with no response. "Clawhauser….. Clawhauser!"

Clawhauser then flew from his desk like a cheetah usually would. "Huh, yea I'll take care of that report later!"

"Clawhauser it's us." Judy said.

Clawhauser stood up seeing Judy and Nick both standing in front of his desk. "Oh hey, what's up?"

 _"_ _He didn't hear a word we said did he?_ " Nick thought.

"We were just wondering about what your thoughts were from recent events."

Clawhauser seemed to be confused. "What recent events?"

Judy and Nick both looked at each other thinking as if Clawhauser was the only one in the city who doesn't know. "Wait a minute, are you telling us you don't know what happened yesterday?" Judy asked.

"Um….." Clawhauser hummed, thinking about it. "No it doesn't ring a bell. Look whatever it is, blame my sleeping for it because I've been having trouble doing that lately."

"Clawhauser, officer Pancho was shot last night, as well as two other mammals." Nick informed.

Clawhauser gasped for air. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Huh?"

"Yea it happened just a day after that shooting with the polar bear behind that bar in Tundratown." Judy said making sure no one was around to hear. "We're pretty sure the other two mammals were apart of Z's group, but that doesn't explain why Pancho was shot."

"You don't think Mr. Big has anything to do with yesterday's case, right?" Nick asked.

"Mr. Big, why would Mr. Big have anything to do with this?" Judy asked.

"Well think about it Judy, Kevin was one of Mr. Big's henchmammals." Nick replied. "Do you remember back when we told Mr. Big about our current kafuffle with Z? He said to Z all those years ago that everyone who worked for him was like a part of his family, and that he would do anything to keep it safe."

Judy was silent for a moment while thinking about it. She knew Nick could be right, but that would mean it wouldn't make any sense on why Z would even want to attack one of Mr. Big's own in the first place if he knew the consequences.

"You have any thoughts on this Clawhauser?" Judy asked, but with no response as Clawhauser oddly had a concerned look on his face. "Uh, Clawhauser?"

Clawhauser shook his head, snapping back into reality. "Huh what, did you ask something?"

Judy rolled her eyes. "Me and Nick were wondering if you think it could've been Mr. Big responsible for yesterday."

"O-oh um, well I wouldn't say it's very likely but given the fact that it was a mammal of his that was shot, you never know how someone like Mr. Big would retaliate." Clawhauser replied hesitantly.

"Hmm, But why Z would want to attack one of Mr. Big's own mammals if he knows how Big would retaliate is still something that's not sitting right in my head guys." Judy brought up.

"Yea, this is rather bizarre…" Nick said.

Judy wanted to continue with this, but knew they had to get going on their patrol duty for the morning. "Look, we can talk more about this later, but me and Nick have to move onto our patrol duty right now Clawhauser, and now more than ever. But Don't forget, Bogo wants us on high alerts around the streets so let's at last act like we really are, okay Nick?"

"Fine by me carrots." Nick replied.

"We might want to also get in contact with Danny and Finnick as well, just to see what their thoughts on all of this is." Judy said. "Who knows, maybe they know more than the last time we chatted with them."

"I doubt it." Clawhauser said. "I took Danny home a couple nights back and tried to call him yesterday, but he wasn't picking up. I don't know, maybe he still needs time in becoming stable again after that little mental breakdown he had that night."

"I could try and reach Finnick later and see if there's anything he may know about what's been happening." Nick offered.

"Good idea, but maybe later though Nick." Judy said. "Come on, let's get to our patrol duty.

* * *

Lately Judy and Nick never actually saw a point in trying to stay on patrol duty now. They knew even if they saw something suspicious, they may run into another problem with Z again. Because of that, they tried to keep a closer eye on the streets and make sure whatever they saw couldn't be related to Z and the rest of his mammals.

"So, do you think it was really one of Z's mammals behind the attack on that polar bear?" Nick asked, while driving through the Savannah central.

"I, I'm not sure Nick." Judy replied. "I get that Z would know better than to do something like that, but there's literally nobody else I can think of that could've done it."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because the mammal used a gun on Kevin." Judy replied. "The only other mammals we know who use guns are the ZPD, and they would know if a gun was missing, and used or not. Other than that, it's just Z. Well, or so we thought after last night."

"Well if Z knows a mammal or two for those jobs, don't you think it's safe to assume Mr. Big would too?"

"Maybe, it might explain the machine gun incident, but not the bar incident whatsoever."

"Okay, well we can continue debating on that since there are a lot of possibilities as to the identity of the attacker, so how about this." Nick said proposing an idea. "Why don't we go over to the crime scene and see for ourselves?"

Judy thought about it while rubbing the back of her neck. "But don't you think we'll get caught snooping around over there Nick?"

"Judy we're police officers, mammals wouldn't find it to be strange to see two officers at a crime scene." Nick said trying to assure her. "Besides, it's not like there's anything we can do right now with Z's mammals still on the streets. We don't want another possible run-in with any of them again. Do you remember what happened to Bucky that night?"

Judy sighed. "Alright fine, but in worst case scenario, what will we tell them?"

"Oh, we can just tell them there was a mix up with the assignments."

Judy started biting her lip nervously. "Okay let's just go over there, see what we can find and get out of there no questions asked."

* * *

Once they got there, they could still see leftover caution tape blowing through the cold wind, leaving a darkish feeling as the two entered the crime scene.

"I doubt we'll find anything since not even any sniffers could sense, or smell a hair of evidence around here." Judy said.

"Well, it is possible the snow covered the attacker's tracks so we can't be too sure Judy." Nick said, looking around.

"Well hopefully we can find something then."

"Okay so when we look here, how would you say it played out?" Nick asked.

"Hmm, Nick stand over by the fence will ya?" Judy requested.

Nick shrugged. "Sure thing Carrots."

"Okay, let's see…." Judy mumbled, while examining the scene. "It seems like from here, the attacker shot the victim in the leg, causing him to fall to the ground. So let's say you were the victim Nick and fell to the ground." She said, as Nick laid down on the ground. "So the attacker moved up, shot him a few more times and fled the scene before anyone would notice them."

"Yea, sounds about right carrots but what does that prove about the attacker?"

"I'm just trying to think where the attacker would've gone…" Judy said looking around. "Coming in from a position with no mammals or cameras…. Ah, there!" She said pointing while walking over to it.

"The fence?"

"Yep, this area over here is perfect if you want to make an escape without being seen by anything, or anyone with other buildings blocking the road." Judy explained. "But it doesn't look like the attacker made any error while going over it."

"Why don't we follow where the fences on the other sides lead to and see if the attacker might have torn off something while fleeing?"

"Sounds like a plan."

As the two continued going from fence to fence to find any sort of evidence left around, they were starting to come up empty handed. But right by the end of the road at the last fence, something caught Judy's eye.

"Hey wait a minute, what is that?" Judy asked, pointing towards the unknown object.

Nick started moving closer to it as well to get a better look at it. "Hold on, is that some sort of piece of a clothing?"

Judy went and gently picked the little black looking substance off of the fence. Judy sniffed at it. "This doesn't smell like any species I know of so it could be."

"Here, let me sniff it." Nick said, as Judy was giving it to him. "Hmm, I got nothing either."

"Well then that means it has to be from some clothing." Judy said. "But whatever clothing it was, the attacker must have worn the darkest clothing around as a precaution then."

"It's safe to assume that, yes." Judy said. "But why does this sort of leather smell and feel so familiar to me?"

"Familiar?" Nick said, clueless of what Judy was thinking. He also looked at it as well closely, along with feeling it and felt the same vibe Judy was feeling. "Hold on, this sort of wear almost looks and feels as if _we_ used this recently…."

"But I don't understand, I wouldn't normally be using an all-black kind of clothing, I'd used some dark coloured ones but never black." Judy said. "I mean the only other kind of black clothing I have is the one Z gave to us and-"

Judy paused, as she turned away with her eyes widened after realizing the horrible truth.

"Judy, what is it?"

"This was from a type of leather clothing that only Z gave to us!" Judy shouted. "That's why it only looks familiar to us, it's because we're the only ones who wore it with this fabric!"

"But Judy, what are you saying?"

"Think about it Nick, and you'll probably understand." Judy told him. "I know this all seems rushed to assume this, but just try to understand my angle on this."

Nick then thought about it, and only a few moments later did he finally understand the sad truth as well.

* * *

"I'm sorry but I can't seem to understand who I am talking to right now." Z said, continuing to talk to the unknown phone caller.

 _"_ _Mr. Stripes, you should consider yourself lucky I never had my polar bear tell the ZPD anything about that night at the bar."_ The caller said. _"But that doesn't mean I was going to let you simply slide from that, especially how one of your mammals threatened him, and was even putting threats on my family. I told you all those years ago what would happen if you tried something as stupid as this, but you never seemed to understand the message. Well, I hope you're understanding your mistakes from this now Z."_

Z began to understand now who was on the other end. "Let me put this as clear as I can Mr. Big. I have literally no idea what the hell you are talking about right now. I never sent any sort of mammal to attack one of yours!"

 _"_ _Do you seriously think you can get off of this simply by denial Z?"_ Mr. Big asked.

"Says the mammal who called other mammals to machine gun two of my own and even an officer of the law!" Z shouted.

 _"_ _You left me no choice."_ Mr. Big argued. _"If I didn't show you retaliation, I'm sure you can picture how I assumed it may have turned out for me and my family."_

"Okay, okay just…." Z said hesitantly while still trying to reason with Mr. Big. "How about this. Why don't you give me a brief description of what the attacker said and looked like, and I can tell you if it was one of my guys or not because if it wasn't, this for me will not be left unscathed either."

 _"_ _You better be truthful on it then."_ Mr. Big ordered. _"He said it was a hooded mammal with a weird drawing on their face, his voice sounding gravely, and that he was acting as a message from you. They said you were now in control of any territory you wanted, including ours. And if we didn't obey it, you and your mammals would come into my home and slaughter the whole lot of us."_

"Mr. Big, I regret to inform you, but we have no such mammals working for us." Z said, chuckling. "I mean the only mammals that would even stay hooded in our group are-"

Z's eyes widened as he had also figured it out. " _Are who Z?"_ Mr. Big asked.

"Mr. Big, you're sure this hooded mammal had a drawing on their face part of the hoodie, right?" Z asked.

 _"_ _Yes…"_

"What was the drawing your polar bear saw?"

Mr. Big wasn't sure where this was coming from _"Z, I don't seem to quite understand what the drawing has to do with-"_

"WHAT WAS THE DAMN DRAWING ON THAT MAMMALS FACE?!"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 26, Someone Needs To Pay**


	27. Someone Needs To Pay

**Chapter 26: Someone Needs To Pay**

"Oh my god, it was one of us?" Nick said, as he and Judy were investigating the crime scene where the polar bear shot behind the bar took place.

"But… but who the hell was it?!" Judy shouted.

"O-okay look, maybe it's not what we think it is." Nick said.

"Nick what are you saying, it's exactly what we think it is!"

"No, don't you think it's a possibility that whoever shot Kevin here could have just been coincidentally wearing the same clothing for this?"

"Nick, this isn't a simple coincidence we're talking here!" Judy continued to shout. "What coincidence are you going to say next? The fact that you, Finnick, Danny, and Clawhauser had a rough conversation with Z on the same night the polar bear Kevin, one of Mr. Big's was shot?"

Nick couldn't believe what she was saying right now. "Judy, I think you're just overthinking this because I know those guys and they-"

"I'm not overthinking this Nick!" Judy yelled, interrupting Nick.

"Oh, so what are you saying then?!" Nick shouted back. "You're saying one of us four actually decided to cross the boundaries with what we can and can't do between us and Z? You think one of us actually remember what Mr. Big said to us when we talked to him about Z and his crew, and how he would do anything to keep his "family" safe? That they purposely shot Kevin because he was one of Mr. Big's mammals and threatened him to think he was one of Z's guys?!"

"Don't look at me for why one of you did it while going through this elaborate plan you're thinking of."

"But it wasn't me Judy!"

"Oh yea, and how am I supposed to know that isn't just a lie?"

Nick was speechless. "Did you actually just say that Judy? Who in the world do you think you're talking to right now? What kind of a friend would lie to you about that?"

"Certainly the kind that just wants to save their own tail." Judy replied. "Look I'm not saying it was certainly you, but you four were the only ones who got aggravated with Z that night after that conversation you all had with him. I mean why did you even bother to ask him about when the heck we would be finished with all of this in the first place? Wouldn't you five have known the answer by now if it's Z we're talking here?"

"Look I tried to stop those three from going but I knew it was pointless anyways." Nick replied. "And don't think you're out of the picture just yet Judy. How do I know when you left the sandwich store that night, you didn't just say that not wanting to participate nonsense as a way of leaving to do what the attacker did to that polar bear?"

"Are you actually _trying_ to be that dumb right now Nick?" Judy asked, becoming aggravated with Nick. "If I was the mammal who did it, then care to explain why I've been trying to investigate into this in the first place? Not only that, I never saw a reason to do any of that around that time, unlike you guys."

"Knock it off Judy."

"No, no, no, I want to hear your answer."

"Is there even a point in saying it if you won't like it?"

"Definitely will be better than saying nothing, that's for sure."

"Alright fine, maybe it's because you wanted to find a way to throw us off if you really were concerned about someone figuring out it was you." Nick replied with Judy looking stunned. "Well you did want me to be straight forward with you, so there you go."

"You are acting beyond the lines of abnormal now Nick." Judy said. "You are actually thinking right now that _I_ had something to do with the attack of a polar bear, as in going far enough to shoot them and hurt them? Where have you been for the past year?"

"Hey, at least I'm not the one jumping immediately into conclusions about our own friends!" Nick yelled. "What if it turns out to be nothing like you've predicted, huh? What if it really was just another mammal who got lucky enough to get a hold of our clothing and weapons?"

"Nick, you know just as well as I do that it's not at all what happened."

"Judy, you're overheating all of this arguing over just a piece of fabric that we're not even positive yet it's the same we would wear?" Nick asked. "There's literally no proof right now that it's the same kind of fabric the attacker used that night. Has it ever occurred to you that Maybe it could have ripped off of anybody's clothing, flew over here and just got stuck on the fence?"

"But to have found this particular fabric of clothing found by us only a couple days after the incident happened, that isn't very likely to be just another coincidence Nick!"

Nick turned his back from Judy's while shaking his head in disbelief over the words that were coming out of Judy's mouth. But no matter what, he didn't want to believe any of his friends would ever go to a measure such as this, involving Z and the rest of his crew causing lives lost along the way.

"Look Judy I'm sorry, but until there really is enough evidence here to support that it really was one of us five, I'm afraid any of these suspicions are going to have to be put on hold for me." Nick said, letting Judy know his opinion on the matter. "I just, don't see why we need to go to such high standards like accusing our own friends to figure this all out."

"But Nick we-" Judy said, before pausing. She herself knew there was no one else who could've done it, as well as have a motive for the time averaged between the shooting with the polar bear behind the bar. However, she also understood Nick's perspective as well and that she would also have the same deniability as him if someone were to accuse close friends of hers as well.

"Come on Judy, you know just as well as I do none of us would ever think about doing such a harsh thing on someone." Nick pleaded. "Sure some of us may have been a little pushed and shoved that night, but I'm sure we all know better than to go up to someone and shoot them for our own benefit. Now that's something I know you would agree with for sure."

Judy exhaled deeply while stretching her ears back. "One slip up Nick. One slip up from any of us is what it will take now for them to either get arrested, or even be damaged in a way we probably won't be breathing anymore by Z. But speaking of which, how do we know Z hasn't figured it out yet on who as responsible for it? He must know it wasn't one of his mammals who did it by now."

"We'll just see the outcome of it and if nothing happens, then maybe he assumed it wasn't us." Nick answered. "Look we can discuss this more later, but for now let's just finish our patrol for the day."

"fine." Judy said silently. "But Nick, just know that if the day ever comes when I'm certain it's one of us, please don't take it personally if I have to inform Z."

"Why would you need to inform Z at all?"

"Because if he were to ever find out about me knowing who the attacker was or even just a tiny speck of a clue, I would be the one going in the rabbit hole Nick."

Nick realized that as well. "Oh well I suppose, but either way though…."

"Trust me, I don't want to do this as much as you do Nick." Judy assured. "But whoever the attacker was, they should've known better than to shoot a polar bear that happened to be a part of Mr. Big's crew."

"Fair enough Judy, but until then we _all_ have to have each other's back on this one."

Judy nodded while patting Nick on the back while trying to have an encouraging smile. "That we shall Nick, that we shall."

* * *

"You're positive it was them Z?" A mammal of Z's crew asked.

"One of them actually, but that doesn't matter because I'm sure they all thought the same thing that night." Z replied. "Now I don't know what the hell was going through this mammals head while having done this little stunt on the polar bear behind that bar, but if that mammal thought they could destroy my business with something as silly as that, then they got another thing coming to them."

"So, then what do you propose we do?"

"We're going to do something I should've done to one of them a long time ago Richard." Z replied. "I want you to grab as many of our guys as you'll need, and get them away where the public won't see them."

"Sure thing Z." Richard obeyed. "One question though, when we get them where are we supposed keep them for the time being?"

"Lock them up in the Canal district down in the sewer cells where some of those fives relatives still are." Z instructed. "I think it's time some of them caught up with each other at any rate."

"But sir, don't you think the ZPD will start to raise even more suspicions when they see three of their officers suddenly turn up missing?"

"Oh, we're not going to keep them locked up for long Richard." Z corrected. "But obviously even with their relative's lives on the line, they are still not getting the plain and simple message through their thick skulls!" He shouted, hitting his hoof hard on the desk.

"So then why don't we just kill them already Z?"

"Because we still need those damn rascals if we want to stay on schedule with all of these new weapon buyers coming in."

"I understand that, but I _don't_ seem to understand what you're going to do to them now." Richard specified. "Are you going to cut an arm off, burn them and shoot them what?"

"All in good time Richard, all in good time." Z replied. "Just get those mammals, lock them up in the cells, and await further orders."

Richard sighed. "Whatever you say boss. But hey while we're on the subject, who exactly was the mammal who shot the guy working for Mr. Big, causing him to shoot two of ours?"

Z smiled. "As I said before Richard, all in good time."

* * *

Later that night.

After investigating the crime scene and now having suspicions of their own, Nick and Judy went back to patrolling duty for the remainder of the day. And just like every officer at the ZPD including Nick, Judy and Clawhauser, they went back home after their shift was finished.

As Nick entered his doorway, he could already smell something in the kitchen. To his surprise, as he walked into the kitchen he saw Amber in an apron cooking a meal.

"Woah, now this sure is new." Nick said smirking.

"Well Nick, I've come to learn there's even a limit to being bored with doing nothing and watching television all day." Amber said. "And not just that… I mean I know you're always the one to cook for me every day so I figured maybe I could…."

Nick giggled a little under his breath. "I appreciate that Amber, really. So what are you making right now?"

"Oh just some mac and cheese, nothing special."

"Alright well call me when it's ready I'm just going to have a quick shower."

"You got it."

Nick was never much of a shower mammal, but every time he did take one it would always feel special to him in a sort of way. It would always be a way to let it all out for him in a calm manner as the water would continue to fall smoothly onto his body, but mainly the face.

After his shower, he changed into his typical Hawaiian green t-shirt, his dark indigo necktie, and his pair of brownish-gray pants in case if he felt like going back out for the night. Once he was fully changed, he came back out and went into the kitchen to get himself some mac and cheese, only to see that it was on the table for him already ready.

Nick chuckled a bit. "Now you must've been _really_ bored if you took the time to put that out just for me Amber."

"Well then I guess you can call it out of the kindness of my heart." Amber declared. "But enough about that, you should eat Nick, I haven't seen you eating very much lately."

"Yea lately eating has been the least of my problems Amber." Nick said, as he was taking a seat on his chair. "The entire city of Zootopia has been going crazy now because of recent events, and now They've been saying this place is no longer a utopia or paradise in which we can all peacefully live in any more."

"Yea well, where have they been all their life?"

"That is exactly what I thought as well Amber." Nick said, as the two started laughing. "But on a serious note, it hasn't been easy staying out of the ZPD's sights when me and my friends have been doing all these trades for Z. After all when you're actually _in_ the ZPD, it almost feels like a burdens been put on you that's hard to get off."

"Like a leech?"

"Yea, like a leech."

"Aw come on, look on the bright side Nick, at least you're still alive and not held up somewhere against your will."

"What, like you?"

Amber thought about it, realizing that it did indeed resemble her status as well. "Well, sort of but it's not like its living hell crashing in your place for the time being."

Nick shrugged. "Fair enough."

"So hey, I've been watching a bit of the news lately and what's all this going on about a polar bears shot behind a bar, as well as another story the very next day about some deaths involving a machine gun? I mean I've got a feeling I know who's connected to it, but do you know what the story is to all of this?"

Nick sighed laying his chin on his paw. "Well connection wise, me and my friends believe it was Mr. Big responsible for the machine gun case."

"What, what gave you that assumption?"

"Well, the fact that Kevin Sheddy, the guy who was shot behind the bar worked for Big, it's seems safe for the time being to assume he had something to do with it, especially since he's powerful when he wants to be."

"But what I've heard around the streets about Mr. Big is that anybody he didn't like, he would ice them." Amber wondered. "What does icing mean anyway?"

"For Mr. Big's standards, icing is this sort of technique he would use to get mammals to fess up about something, in fact me and my friend Judy almost ended up iced once." Nick explained. "So he basically has this freezing cold water of ice hidden under the carpet in his mansion."

"Oh." Amber said. "You know funny enough, it really was what I was expecting it to be."

"Yea well you can only do so much with the term 'icing' after all." Nick said. "But as I was saying, Mr. Big probably wouldn't have used that method on Z since he most likely knew how powerful of a mammal he really was as well. So, he must have decided on going to a more drastic approach to it."

"So wait, you're telling me it was one of Z's mammals who attacked that polar bear?"

"Uh, not quite."

"Well then what did you mean by that?"

Nick sighed. "What I meant by that was-"

"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."

Nick was interrupted by the sounds of knocking on his door.

"Oh, got to go get that, just make sure you're out of sight it if it's someone who doesn't know about you." Nick said, as he got out of his chair and began walking towards the door. He wasn't sure who would be knocking on his door at this time, but he assumed it was probably just a neighbor asking for a favor or something. "hello-"

Once he opened the door, he was interrupted by the sight of a gun pointed at his head.

" _Click_." Went the gun.

"W-w-what do you want?" Nick asked nervously with his arms halfway up. "Please tell me you're just one of Z's guys who's being a little too precautious right now?"

"Oh don't worry, I am one of Z's guys if you really were thinking that." The leopard replied. "But I'm definitely not pointing a gun at you because I'm being a little too precautious, I'm pointing this at you because it's an order."

" _An order?"_ Nick thought, as he stood there in shock.

Meanwhile, Amber peaked from the corner of the wall to see who was at the door, but to her surprise seeing Nick with a gun on him.

"Nick what's going on?" Amber asked.

"This doesn't concern you Miss Tailsmith, I'm just here under Z's orders for Mr. Wilde." The leopard with the gun said. "Now either you come with me, or I will use this xd-9 in my paws and end it for you right here, right now. So, what's it going to be?"

Nick was lost for words right now on what was happening in front of him right now. But instinctively, he nodded his head as a sign of obeying the leopard.

"Okay, okay, I'll go with you." Nick said. "Amber, just lock the door and stay here. I'll be back, hopefully soon enough."

Amber nodded to Nick, as she was afraid for hers and Nick's safety.

"Alright, now follow me downstairs and hopefully we don't have to do anything the hard way while we're at it."

Nick closed the door to his apartment, followed the leopard to the stairs, and walked outside the back of the building towards a street. From there, he noticed a van they were walking towards parked nearby on the street. When they got to it, the leopard slid the side door open.

"Alright, good thing we didn't have to do this the hard way." The leopard said. "Now get inside and sit right over on that seat." He said, pointing to a certain seat in the back.

Once Nick got in the back and sat down where he was told to, the leopard got in as well and cuffed his arm onto the chair and put a duffel bag over his head.

"Oh come on, is this really necessary?" Nick asked.

"It will be when Z's dealt with you." The leopard replied, as he slid the side door closed.

* * *

It felt like it had been around twenty minutes give or take until Nick felt the van stopping. The leopard then slid the door back open and uncuffed Nick from the seat, cuffed his hands together behind him while leaving the duffel bag on his head. The leopard grabbed Nick from the back of his shirt, started dragging him out of the van, and continued to do so while they started to walk.

Nick wasn't too sure where the leopard was taking him, but he had a hunch it wasn't anywhere he would be able to recognize. He also recognized him moving down a fair amount of steps as well.

 _"_ _Where is this supposed to be, the sewers, the basement of a building, another bunker of Z's?"_ Nick thought.

After a little while, Nick noticed they were walking straight for quite a long distance which made him think he was in some sort of a hallway. After a bit more walking, he was put to a halt.

"Welcome to the slammers fox." The leopard said, as he took duffel bag off Nick.

The first thing Nick saw was all his friends inside a large looking cell, as well as a few other familiar looking faces. The leopard then opened the cell door and kicked Nick inside before closing it again.

"Now you five wait here and be patient, we'll be back to pick you all up soon." The leopard said. "Noah, be a good lad and make sure the rest of these mammals aren't getting into any more trouble."

"What do you think I've been doing with those other mammals all this time?" Noah said chuckling.

As the leopard walked away, Nick started to realize the other mammals in the cell were in fact the surviving relatives of the five.

"You're Nick Wilde, right?" A mammal asked.

Nick nodded. "Y-yea, that's me. You must be Mr. Hopps by the looks of it right?"

"Yep, that's me." Stu replied, unenthusiastically. "My daughter's told me a lot about you."

"Has she?" Nick asked, looking in Judy's direction. "Well I suppose there's a lot to know about me then. But before I want to say anything else, I just want to know, what the hell is going on?"

"Apparently Z thinks it was one of us five that was responsible for the attacks that have happened recently." Judy replied. "Sound familiar Nick?"

"W-what, what made him assume that?" Nick asked.

"None of us know yet, but if he's got us locked up while still in cuffs and wants to meet with us personally, it sounds like he's pretty confident it was one of us." Finnick said.

Nick looked around to also see Clawhauser and Danny, as well as their relatives in the cell, but another mammal appearing to be a wolf sitting in the corner.

"Oh my god…. Chip?" Nick asked, but with no response. "Chip, is that really you?"

"There's no point in trying to chat with him." Ellie, Clawhauser's sister said. "We've tried a bunch of times already, but after he heard the news of his mom dying, he hasn't said a word since and has never left that spot no matter what."

"You know what, how about we try something new then." Danny said. "It's called, WHO THE HELL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACKS?!" He shouted.

No one would come forward still. "Well obviously whoever it was doesn't want to admit it." Clawhauser said.

"Are you just saying that because you don't want anyone to know it was you?" Danny asked.

"Right back at ya." Clawhauser replied, glaring at Danny.

"Okay well, does anybody think they know a way to rat out that mammal in this room?" Finnick asked.

"I got an idea." Nick said. "Why don't we all say to each other what we did when we all went our separate ways that night?"

"That's easy." Finnick said. "After I dropped you off at your apartment, I drove myself back to my own apartment, put the van in the parking lot, and stayed in my apartment for the rest of the night."

"I did the same thing, only that I never went anywhere else after Finnick dropped me off, you could even ask Amber and she'd say yes." Nick explained.

"Well after I left that sandwich shop after you four were acting like idiots, I simply walked back to my apartment."

"What about Danny?" Finnick asked the others. "He was the one who was going nuts that night."

"Not nuts enough to attack anyone!" Danny shouted. "Okay yes, I admit I did have a bit of a rough night that night, but Clawhauser brought be back home that night and made sure I was alright to be on my own for the rest of the time, right Clawhauser?"

"Yea, he's right." Clawhauser said. "Then after I left, I just went right back to my apartment."

"I knew it." Finnick said. "Even if we say where we were, the mammal would still lie."

"Hey, you don't see us pointing paws at anyone so you shouldn't either." Ellie said.

"Bite me." Finnick said back.

Angered, Ellie began to stand up to hit Finnick, but Clawhauser held her back. "It's not worth it Ellie."

"What exactly has happened ever since well, that night by the grave of the four bodies?" Nick asked the four mammals who have been stuck inside the cell for months now.

"Well, we stayed here waiting for help everyday." Sherry, Danny's mother said. "But month after month, all of us knew that the hopes of that happening were close to never. And a bit more than a week after we got put in here, a fennec, I think her name was Maria was-"

"CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."

Noah started hitting the cell bars with his gun to get the mammals attention. "Alright, the five that just came, saddle up because it's time to say hello to good old Z again." He said, as he signaled other mammals to come to take them away.

Danny, Clawhauser and Judy said their last minute farewells to their loved ones before being taken back out of the cells with blindfolds put on them, along with Nick and Finnick. Once they got out of wherever they were, they were all then put into a van and felt it running a few moments later.

Nick couldn't stop thinking about who the mammal was that caused all of this. His entire mind was still in complete doubt of what's been happening, as well as what's most likely about to happen.

 _"_ _This isn't right, this isn't right…."_ Nick thought. _"It has to be a mistake, it has too….. there's…. there's no way one of us would even do such a thing. It's got to be a lie, no, it has to be a lie."_

* * *

The van then came to a final halt, as the five heard the side door slide open. The two drivers were able to take off the fives blindfolds as they were dragging them out of the van. When the five looked around to see where they were, they immediately noticed the store they were standing in front of. It was Jerry's cheesecake store, the store that turned out to be an area Z would use to store all his guns in for safe keeping.

The five were then forced to move inside the store, where they would eventually reach an area in which the stairs were located. The leopard then took the opening out of a vent and flipped a barely visible switch inside it. The stairway was then formatted and the five then had to move down it while still being cuffed. When they got down there, they saw numerous mammals all staring at them but not in a good way. Some of them even held their breaths for when they saw Z's face for their fear of what the expression would be on it.

When they were brought closer up to the room, they saw Z sitting on a chair, holding the same shiny silver revolver he would always use. But the fact Z had something lethal on him only made the butterflies in the five mammals stomachs flap their wings harder.

"Get these five down on their knees in a straight line for me, will ya?" Z ordered.

The five were then put into a straight line and kicked down onto their knees. There was an odd moment of silence in the room as the five mammals were looking at Z as if they thought he was trying to observe them.

Z then slowly stood up and walked towards the five on the ground. "This has been nothing but a mess with you five so far ever since I brought you on board." He said deeply. "Do any of you have a clue as to how many of my mammals have died ever since we met?"

Some stayed silent, while one or two shrugged.

"Seven." Z answered leaving a few mammals in the room shocked. "First Donnie, then Sam, then Sylvia, then Fred, then Trevor, then Lewis, and then Marco."

"B-but Z, you know we didn't have to do with most of those-"

 _"_ _Click."_ Went a gun behind Judy's head.

"No interruptions please." Z said, signaling the mammal behind Judy to lower the weapon for now. "You know, after all that has happened in these months I even ask myself, where did it all go wrong? Maybe it was right here all those months ago, maybe it was on Claw Street, maybe it was with the fake bodies, maybe it was at the Cliffside Asylum, maybe even recently on Coroner Street, but you know lately I've just given up on figuring it out."

All five of them were starting to sweat since they didn't like where this was going, but feared if it was a bad thing it would feel as if it were their worst nightmare.

"But you know after all of those occurrences, inside I felt there was no one else to blame but me for it." Z admitted. "But now, when I hear something about my own crew dying out of nowhere without any authority, that just leaves me with a sick stomach."

Z was slowly continuing to walk back and forth between the five as the entire room continued to stay silent.

"You know Mr. Big called me the day after the shooting on Coroner happened." Z stated. "He said to me one of my mammals put a gun to his head and threatened him and the entire family of Mr. Big's. I told him that I had no idea what the hell he was talking about because I knew I gave no order for such an act. I know cause I'm a well-organized and memorable mammal, literally a hobby of mine quite frankly. But as the conversation processes, he told me it was a hooded mammal with a picture drawing on their face. Sound familiar to any of you?"

All five of the mammal's eyes widened. _"That's how he's certain one of us did it….."_ Judy thought.

"This experience has taught me that anyone close to you, even your relatives dying just isn't enough for you five to understand _who I am_ , and what I am capable of." Z said. "And in the end I wouldn't usually care about the prices to pay, I would always get what I want. So, without any further interruptions, it's time to say goodbye to one of you five."

The five mammals all gasped at the same time as well as some beginning to hyperventilate.

"Now don't worry, it isn't going to be just some shot in the dark here, even I know better than that." Z assured. "I'm just going for the mammal who had the drawing Mr. Big's polar bear said it looked like when he was attacked. He told me if that mammal was 'taken care of', then we would call it even between the two of us and our groups again."

All of them wanted to plead to Z to not kill any of them, but they knew it was pointless with guns on their backs as it was. By then, it was inevitable this was going to happen.

 _"_ _Click."_ Went Z's revolver as he took the safety off.

"But of course since I myself created the drawings, I already know who the drawing belongs to." He said pointing his gun at the five. "Was it you maybe?" He said pointing it at Nick as he was toying with them. "Or you?" He said pointing at Judy. "Or possibly you?" He said pointing at Finnick. "Or maybe a mammal like you?" He said pointing at Clawhauser. "Hmm, maybe it could've been you." He said pointing it at Danny.

All five of them were shaking to the core as they hoped they wouldn't be the one who would have to eat Z's bullet.

"But enough with the hot potato guessing, it's time for a certain answer." Z said." the mammal who brought this upon themselves after having done something so selfishly was…..." He said delaying his answer.

None of them were even able to breathe as they feared the lives they had lived so long and hard for, would possibly end right now with just the pull of a trigger. Z continued to walk back and forth while still pointing the revolver at the five until he finally made a stop.

"You." Z said pointing his gun to the mammal. "I know I know, shocking isn't it? But as for the rest of you four, learn well from this experience because I guess it just comes to show, you really don't know a mammal better than you think you do. _Especially_ from this bozo right here."

"P-please, please don't do this…." The mammal said still shaking. "I-I get it now Z, I really do!"

"Oh I believe you, I sincerely do." Z said moving his hoof towards his chest as a sign of fake compassion. "But in a situation like this you brought yourself on… At the end of the day, someone needs to pay. And you are the lucky mammal who will indeed be doing so."

"PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!" The mammal cried.

"I'm sorry, but maybe now you and your friends will finally understand the consequences of what happens when you mess with someone like me, no matter what mammal we may stumble upon. So now, I bid you farewell."

"BANG!"

* * *

 **Next time: Chapter 27, Endless Nightmares**

 **And that's probably where I'm going to leave a note on for now. Right now, I'd say we're a bit less or maybe exactly halfway to the point of the events leading up to prologue chapter so we're getting there. Now I just wanted to let you all know I will be on hold with this story for a few more weeks now, since I want to get a bunch of more chapters done so I can stay on track with my weekly chapter posts. I've been running low on chapters to type and upload because of school and all, so I'll be gone but definitely not forever since I'm going with this story until the end.**

 **That's all I wanted to talk about regarding the updates on this story, so until next time!**


	28. Endless Nightmares

**Chapter 27: Endless Nightmares**

February 21st, 2017, During Nick's interview with Z on Zootopia day

"He made you?" Z asked, after asking Nick why he attempted to murder his own father." I'm sorry, I just don't really understand what you mean by he made you."

"THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO PUT IT Z!" Nick shouted while shedding a tear.

"Okay, okay, jeez Mr. Crabby pants." Z said, annoyed. " How about you just tell me what had happened so I can know how much you're really willing to spill to me on this."

"Why the hell are you even interested in me in the first place?"

"Because I'm looking to see what kind of mammals you five all are deep down." Z replied. "It's definitely one way to help me with what kind of helpers you all may be to me, and if any of you might want to try and pull something…. Unnecessary I guess you can say."

"Alright, alright fine, if you're creepy enough that you really want to know that badly." Nick said. "It was around twenty years ago when I was still just a kit. Me and my mom really did like it the way things were with us two. We both thought of each other before anything around then. But then one night, around the time we were just finishing up our dinner, we heard the doorbell ring."

* * *

April 29th, 1995, the day of the encounter

" _Ding, dong_." Went the doorbell.

"Oh, who could that be?" Nick's mother Sarah wondered. "Nick dear, finish up your spaghetti while I'm at the door okay?"

"Sure thing mom!" Nick called out to her as he was finishing his spaghetti.

When he finished it up, he started washing the dish and put it in the sink until he started hearing some commotion coming from outside the kitchen. He was a little curious to know what would be going on with a visitor that his mother had only just opened the door for. When he peaked through the hallway of the entrance to the kitchen, he noticed a heated argument between his mother and another fox he didn't recognize.

"The hell with that John, I have to handle my own expenses as it is, not to mention this is none of my concern either." Sarah said to the visitor. "Don't think you can just expect me to give you money for your _own_ problems to solve!"

"But Sarah you don't understand, if I don't get the money soon, the sharks are going to come after me!" John cried.

"John, the last thing you did to me when we last saw each other was you shoving me to the ground, threatening my life for a decision I wanted to make and not you, slapped me in the face and simply walked away leaving me on the dirt ground." Sarah accused, reminding John of what he did to her. "And now you come into my house expecting me to pay you a large sum of money for _your own_ mistakes?!"

"Listen Sarah, I'm sorry but I was angry and couldn't really think properly after the news you told me that night." John said in a sorrow voice. "Now please, you are literally my only option left now for money because even my best and rich friends won't give me a penny. You know what those mammals will do if I don't pay up in time!"

"John for the last time, I couldn't give a rats tail about your problems!"

"Uh mom, is something wrong?" Nick asked coming out of the hallway.

"Christ Sarah, you could've told me there was a kid nearby while discussing this." John said.

Sarah looked at him in disgust. "That _kid_ just so happens to be your son."

John's eyes widened as he couldn't even breathe. "M-my son?" He said silently.

Sarah nodded. "Nicholas Wilde."

John was still in shock after hearing those words. "You gave him my family name?"

"I just wanted him to at least remember something about the father he would have most likely never seen in his life." Sarah explained. "But I guess you can talk to him about it yourself now."

John then turned his head towards Nick, as he saw Nick shedding a tear of an unknown emotion.

"Dad?" Nick asked silently. "You're, you're really my dad?"

John couldn't believe after all these years since he left Sarah, he never knew he would also be leaving behind his unborn son.

"I-I…." John said hesitating on what to say to Nick. But instead, he decided to shrug it off and go back to the subject. "Look kid, you should go to your room because your mother and I still have certain matters to discuss." He said looking back at Sarah.

"What did you just say?" Sarah asked in disbelief.

"Look Sarah I don't have time to think about this right now, I just need the money."

"Not having time to think about it?!" Sarah shrieked. "After ten long years and you finally meet the son you never even knew you had, all you still care about is money?!"

John paused for a moment. "Sarah, I really need it soon if I don't want to get turned into fox meat!"

Sarah couldn't believe the words that were coming out of John's mouth. She then shoved John aside, moved to the entrance door and opened it.

"Get out of here John." Sarah said.

John couldn't believe it. "What, are you serious right now Sarah?"

"John I don't even care anymore if you turn into fox meat, I just don't ever want to see your god damn face around you, or Nicholas ever again."

"Y-you can't seriously be doing this to me right now." John said in denial. "Sarah you will basically be killing me if you don't give me anything here, I need that money!"

"GET OUT!" Sarah shouted.

"YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME SARAH!" John shouted back.

"That's it I'm calling the police." Sarah said, as she was heading towards the phone.

But just as she was reaching for the phone, she was pulled back after John had grabbed her arm.

"Don't you dare." John said deeply.

"Let go of me John." Sarah demanded, but with John still hanging onto her. "I SAID LET GO OF ME-"

"PUNCH!"

John knocked Sarah onto the ground with a hard punch to the face. Nick stood in front of the two foxes stunned at what was happening with his very eyes.

"I didn't want it to come to this Sarah, but right now I'm desperate." John said, as he laid on top of Sarah, forcing her to stay on the floor.

"I'm not crying this time John…." Sarah mumbled.

"PUNCH!"

John hit her in the face once more. "Cut it out Sarah, now where the hell's all your money and credit cards?!"

Sarah smiled. "Go to hell."

John became infuriated after hearing those words come out of her mouth, as he lifted his paw up preparing to hit her hard enough to knock her out cold.

"Why you little-"

Before John could say what he was going to say, something thin and sharp had just went through his waist. When he looked down, he realized a knife had just pierced through his skin.

"….." He paused, as he collapsed to the ground once the knife was pulled out of him.

When Sarah recovered, she realized it was Nick who had stabbed him. "N-Nick honey, what are you doing with that knife in your hands?" She asked.

"I-I had to stop him somehow…." Nick replied.

"Okay he has stopped, but Nick, you can put the knife down Now-"

"NO." He said loudly, interrupting her. "You told me that he's hurt you before, and now he's coming back doing it again. Why should he live after all that he's done to you?!"

"Because you're not a fox like him son." Sarah replied, as that thought began to sink through Nick's head. "But if you do an unspeakable thing to him like that, then you will be no better than he's been in his life. Now please Nicholas, just put down the knife."

Nick was still gritting his teeth while tightening his grip on the knife as he knew he wanted to finish him right now, but didn't want his mother to think of him as something bad. A few moments later, Nick's body started to cool down as he dropped the knife soon afterward. After looking at his paws covered in his father's blood, he couldn't help but feel saddened as he burst into tears, with his mother hugging him to try and comfort him in this despair filled moment of his.

* * *

"Eh, a little sour of a short story for my taste, but it was alright." Z said, after Nick finished up with his story. "So what happened afterwards?"

"Well my mother obviously phoned an ambulance for my dad since he had lost quite a fair amount of blood from the looks of it, but luckily I never hit any vital areas of his so he was eventually able to make a full recovery."

"And I'm assuming he pressed assault charges on you and your mother, but that must've been how the technicality came into play in your case as well as probably a claim of self-defense, which made you two walk away Scott-free right?"

"If you were to sum up the aftermath of the events, yes that's how it went." Nick replied.

"And you must have been only what, nine or ten?"

"Ten I believe."

"Yea, I'd want to bet after a bloody incident like the one you were in, you must've been having endless nightmares for months at the very least."

"I try not to think about what happened on that day and just move on from it Z, it's bad enough you made me repeat the entire damn thing to you."

"Yea well maybe sometimes mammals need to reopen the wounds if they want to find what they're after in the end."

"Even though it'd be painful to do so." Nick mumbled. "So what are you gonna do now that you know about it?"

"Hopefully nothing." Z said, as he started to pack up. "But if I were to put it in the best way possible for yourself, try to think of it as a way of understanding me more."

"Understanding you how?"

"Well, clearly none of your friends have figured it out yet, or probably even most of the ZPD for that matter." Z replied. "And yet I myself get it from you with just a few simple questions. So if you can't tell already from that, just know I always get what I want."

"As a matter of fact, I do know that by now." Nick said. "You don't need a reminder of something that's hard to get out of your mind Z."

* * *

March 17th, 2017, present time

Nick thought he had seen what true fear was when he saw his mother get shot in the head with him forcing to watch. But now with his friends all in danger of getting shot including himself, he began to have second thoughts. He wanted to plead to Z that he didn't _have_ to kill any of them, but knew it was pointless with guns already on their backs as it was.

" _Click."_ Went Z's revolver as he took the safety off.

"But of course since I myself created the drawings, I already know who the drawing belongs to." He said pointing his gun at the five. "Was it you maybe?" He said pointing it at Nick as he was toying with them. "Or you?" He said pointing at Judy. "Or possibly you?" He said pointing at Finnick. "Or maybe a mammal like you?" He said pointing at Clawhauser. "Hmm, maybe it could've been you." He said pointing it at Danny.

All five of them were shaking as they hoped they wouldn't be the one who would have to eat Z's bullet.

"But enough with the hot potato guessing, I believe it's time for a certain answer to now be given." Z said." the mammal who brought this upon themselves after having done something so selfishly was…..." He said delaying his answer.

None of them were even able to breathe as they feared the lives they had lived so long and hard for, could simply end right now with just the pull of a trigger. Z continued to walk back and forth while still pointing the revolver at the five until he finally made a stop.

"You." Z said pointing his gun to Clawhauser.

All four mammals' jaws dropped completely, turning their heads toward Clawhauser after realizing who it was out of the five of them that was responsible for the attacks.

" _C-Clawhauser_?" Judy muttered, still shaking in disbelief it was him.

"I know I know, shocking isn't it?" Z said. "But as for the rest of you four, learn well from this experience because I guess it just comes to show, you really don't know a mammal better than you think you do. _Especially_ from this bozo right here."

"P-please, please don't do this…." Clawhauser pleaded, with his entire body still shaking. "I-I get it now Z, I really do!"

"Oh I believe you, I sincerely do." Z said moving his hoof towards his chest as a sign of fake compassion. "But in a situation like this you brought yourself on… At the end of the day, someone needs to pay. And you are the lucky mammal who will indeed be doing so."

"PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU!" Clawhauser cried.

"I'm sorry, but maybe now you and your friends will finally understand the consequences of what happens when you mess with someone like me, no matter what mammal we may stumble upon." Z said expressing himself. "So now, I bid you farewell."

"BANG!"

It was all so sudden. Clawhauser, the mammal all of them thought would have lived a long and happy life, with them staying friends until the end was now crushed inside their minds. Time had felt like it stopped for all four of them as they saw him slowly falling to the ground with a shot to the head.

"Yes, the drawing on the mammal's face that attacked the polar bear that night was a microphone." Z answered. "And of course, the mammal who owned the jacket of that drawing on it was in fact, Benjamin Clawhauser."

" _This can't be happening, this can't be happening..."_ Nick thought.

"Richard, you can go ahead and tell Mr. Big now the situation between us two has been resolved." Z said, as he was putting his revolver back in his suit. "And as for you four, I just wanted to let you know about something." He said bending down, as the four were still on their knees. "Normally an animal who does something similar to this wouldn't do it because it's personal, believe me. But for a case like that chubby fellow laying on the ground before you, I can tell you it is."

All four were still in shock after what they had just witnessed before their very eyes for the second time now. None of them could stop staring at Clawhauser's body laying still on the floor, not even to blink for less than a millisecond.

"You know what, while I'm at it I figure there's one more necessary thing to do now that comes to my mind." Z said having an idea. "Peter you have Noah's number on your phone, yes?"

"Yea that's right, why?"

"I want you to put him on the line and tell him to go put a bullet inside the dead cheetah's sister in the cell."

Judy gasped. "WHAT, NO YOU CAN'T!" She screamed.

"Uh, I'm pretty sure I just did Miss Hopps." Z corrected.

"BUT YOU CAN'T JUST SHOOT A MAMMAL FOR A CRIME THEY NEVER EVEN-!"

"BAM!"

Judy fell to the floor after being knocked out cold from a mammal behind her.

"Thank you shane." Z said. "Now I know you are all lost for words from this, but it's not like you haven't been through this before. You'll get over it, and then we can go right back onto business. It's as simple as that gentle mammals, are we clear?" He asked, but with no response. "I SAID ARE WE CLEAR?!"

Just then, Finnick got up to his feet and was about to go for Z's face, but was then tackled to the ground by the mammals behind him.

"My, my, we got a feisty one over here." Z said.

"YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A PSYCHOTIC ZEBRA, YOU KNOW THAT?!" Finnick shouted, as he had his face forced to the floor.

"Believe me, you're not the first mammal to say that to me." Z replied. "But then again, says the mammal who to anyone you ask is nothing but a common thief."

Not even Nick understood what Z meant by thief because of all the scams they did together, not one technically involved stealing anything. After seeing the confused faces on Danny and Nick, Z knew they probably didn't understand what he was talking about.

"Oh, Mr. Masto never told any of you his little secret which I had figured out already, did he?" Z asked, as the two shook their heads lightly. "Yes well his little secret was a very dirty one since he robbed multiple convenience stores throughout the city of Zootopia."

The two, especially Nick couldn't believe it either because ever since they met on the streets all those years ago, not once did he ever mention anything about robbing stores.

"There was even this one case where the owner refused to give the money to him." Z brought up. "So he took the poor otter's head and smashed it against a pipe, naturally causing a few teeth to fall out along with him staying on the ground, but lucky for him still able to breathe. Well, of course with dentures having put in him afterwards."

"ENOUGH ALREADY!" Finnick shouted, as mammals were still keeping him glued to the floor. "ANIMALS MAKE MISTAKES IN LIFE BIG DEAL, WE'RE ALL NEVER GOING TO BE PERFECT! BUT YOU? YOU'RE A STRAIGHT-UP MURDERER!"

"It takes one to know one Mr. Masto." Z claimed. "I know about that incident back on Claw Street where you deliberately put a bullet into the back of a lion's skull. So don't go yapping about things like that when you know you're also a part of it."

Finnick stayed silent this time, knowing that Z put a checkmate on their argument.

"Now I don't want any of you to be getting funny ideas of anything that had just happened here now." Z reminded. "You try to act out some sort of vengeance plot, you know exactly what's going to happen to you. You tell anyone, even a drunk guy that simply wanders into you on a street one night, well you know exactly what's going to happen to you. Do I need to repeat it again?"

The three shook their heads now understanding the exact message now Z has been trying to let them know the entire time.

"Good." Z said nodding. "Alright, looks like we're done here for the day. We'll give you four another holler when we will be needing your assistance but until then, get the hell out of my sights. And someone, I don't care who just take Mr. Clawhauser out to the Kafya desert and put him in the ground with all the others. We're done here for the night after all." He said, as he began walking towards the stairs.

Nick, Finnick, and Danny were dragged up to their feet while a polar bear was carrying the unconscious Judy.

"I'm gonna take Miss Hopps here back to her apartment and drop her off whenever she recovers from the hit to her head." The polar bear said. "You're all cool with that, right?"

"Yea, yea, no problem Biggy." A mammal replied.

The four were then brought back up the stairs and put in two separate vans to drive them back to their homes. One van contained Finnick, Nick, and Danny while the other one was just Judy for whenever she would regain consciousness.

A while later, they arrived at Nick's apartment. "Alright, this is your stop Mr. Wilde." The driver said, but with Nick not responding nor moving. "Hey fox, did you hear what I said or what? This is your stop now get out." He said once more, but with Nick still not responding. "Christ…" The driver said taking his seatbelt off opening the door.

"Nick, did you hear him?" Danny asked. "You need to get out of the van."

The side door then slid open, as the driver yanked Nick out of the van and threw him to the ground.

"You made me ask twice." The driver said, as he began walking back into the van and driving away leaving Nick lying on the pavement.

Nick never even bothered to get up for a while. After what had just happened, he couldn't help but feel more useless as he already was feeling right now. After watching his friend get shot right in front of him just like his mother without being able to do a single thing about it, he wondered how useful he really was to the world.

Nick eventually, and slowly walked back up from the pavement and began walking back inside his apartment. There were a few mammals in the small lobby that noticed his gloomier attitude than usual, but none of them cared enough to ask him about it. Soon enough, he came across his apartment room and knocked on the door.

When the door opened, a paw immediately grabbed him shirt and shoved him inside while closing the door right after. When he got up, he noticed it was Amber who put him back inside in a hurry as she was locking the door.

"It's about damn time Nick." Amber said. "Now it's time for some answers. First off, you can tell me what the hell was a mammal doing here with a gun put on you? Or even telling me where the hell you've been all this time is good enough for me."

There was still no response from Nick as all Amber could see on him was a blank face.

"Nick?" Amber asked, noticing his odd behaviour. "Nick can you hear me? Is there some sort of reason you aren't answering me?" She asked, waving her paw around his face to see if he would notice. "Was there something you saw Nick while you were-"

"I'm going to bed." Nick finally spoke interrupting Amber.

"Wait what?" Amber asked puzzled with Nick. "But Nick I just want to know what happened so I can-"

"I said I'm going to bed." Nick said interrupting her again, as he was walking towards the bedroom.

Amber still didn't seem to understand what was wrong with Nick, or possibly what he saw, but she assumed it was something he needed to take some time on before answering her. But seeing as how he was acting like he was deep into space, she wondered how long it would take him.

When Nick opened the door to his bedroom, he immediately plopped himself on the bed faced forward looking aimlessly at the ceiling. After a few moments, he began to feel water coming from his eyes. He then felt no need to keep it inside, so he squeezed his paws to his face and began screaming to the top of his lungs.

* * *

When Judy woke up, the first thing she saw was a vague, tall white figure sitting in front of her inside a small area looking to be the back of a van.

"You five just never end up listening, do you?" Biggy asked, as he saw Judy opening her eyes while putting her head slightly up. "Z tells you to do simple orders that even a child could do if they knew the steps, but no. Seems like some of you just can't seem to understand the damn message by now, and something tells me you're on the road to never doing so."

At first, Judy didn't understand what Biggy meant by one of them. But when she began to recall glimpses of what had happened at the basement of Jerry's cheesecake store, she instinctively began to slide the door open to see for herself, but not before Biggy held the door shut preventing her from leaving.

"No, no it can't be true." Judy said, as she was in denial. "IT CAN'T BE! I have to go see for myself, I HAVE TO!"

"There's no use Judy, both of us know quite well that Benjamin Clawhauser is now dead." Biggy stated. "Now you can be in denial about it all you want, but you can't act like it didn't happen forever."

Judy still felt in her mind there was something she could do, but then started to understand there really was nothing she could do. Clawhauser's gone, and she knew he was never coming back. She then fell to her knees trying to take in the thought.

"I-it doesn't make any sense…." Judy said. "Clawhauser never wanted _any_ violence to happen. There's no way he would have done something like that to that polar bear!"

'What, you think he did it because he was scared then?" Biggy asked.

"Well, what else could it have been?!"

"Judy, I've been through dozens of these sort of matters before when the big question is why they did it." Biggy explained. "For this case, it seems like Mr. Clawhauser wasn't scared for himself, but he was scared for others."

"Scared for others, what does that mean?"

"I heard about the little heated up argument story from Z earlier when he came to chat about the story behind it." Biggy admitted. "And something tells me after Clawhauser saw that wolf friend, Danny I think his name was ball out on the ground in tears like a little kit, it may have reminded him of his sister so much he worried she would turn out like that if something didn't change for the better and soon. What does he do you may ask? He decides to deal with it in a way _he_ thinks is right."

"But, but he wouldn't…"

"Hey, it's just as Z said, seems like you really don't know a mammal better than you think you do." Biggy reminded. "Now as for your current situation, I suggest you do what he says. I mean after tonight's fiasco, you should know by now he's serious about what he tells you all. And because of the actions that cheetah had done, there's nothing I can do to help you at all right now."

Judy then slowly turned her head towards Biggy angered. "Help? What kind of help have you been all this time? I never asked for it, and frankly I nor anyone else needs it besides Z if he probably wants you to do what he just did to my friend! You know, you can try all you want to sabotage him, but keep me out of it."

Biggy gasped sarcastically. "Oh how my feelings have been hurt. Now just get out of the van already before we need to take more issues the hard way."

"Yea gee, that makes me feel so much better." Judy shot back, as she got out of the van and slid the door shut.

 _"Kits, they've_ always _been the hardest problem solvers in life."_ Biggy thought, as he was laying his paw on his face.

* * *

February 21st, 2017, the day during the interviews with Z.

"You are Mr. Clawhauser correct?" Z asked as Clawhauser was entering the room.

"Yep, it is." Clawhauser replied. "But where is everyone else, are they late or something?"

"No, I just made separate times for everyone because I wanted to do separate meetings." Z replied. "Now please, have a seat so we can talk."

"Uh, okay…." Clawhauser said walking towards the seat, as he was still a little baffled on why Z would do that.

"Okay so first off, I just wanted to let you know we have new jobs coming in for the five of you."

Clawhauser was surprised. "New ones, I-I don't really…."

"Well even after that little hiccup to the business at the Cliffside Asylum, there's still lots of potential out there for buyers." Z explained. "And of all the opportunities, we definitely can't turn down any of these."

Clawhauser stretched his fur back feeling a little stressed. "Z, has it ever occurred to you, that we may have done enough for you as it is?"

"Um, no." Z replied. "Mr. Clawhauser, you should know business is business no matter what emotional crap may come along the way. Well, unless it's in a way that may affect me which is a _whole_ different story I prefer we chat about another time, because that's not what I brought you here to discuss about."

"Well then what did you bring me in here to discuss?"

Z then put his hoof up signaling Richard, as Richard began walking to retrieve something.

"Uh, where's he going?" Clawhauser asked.

"He's just getting something, give him a sec."

When Richard came back, he was carrying a lie detector with him.

"A lie detector, is that really necessary Z?" Clawhauser asked, as he had wires being put on him.

"Hey it doesn't matter what kind of animal you are, you can never be too sure." Z said. "Hell, even mayor Lionheart down in the lobby was responsible for something no one thought he would do especially. But luckily he was let off pretty easily for that one, but anyways you get the point."

"I have for a while now."

"Alright well the main question I've got for you is what your opinion is on the other four?"

"W-what do you mean opinion?"

"Hmm let me rephrase it then, do you think you can trust them especially after recent events in the past few months or more?"

"Trust, well I mean…." Clawhauser said, hesitating knowing that if he lied Z would know. "I mean I've never seen a reason to see any distrust in Nick, Finnick or Danny in that matter so…."

"But what about Judy?" Z asked, curious as to why he left her name out.

"Well Judy is, how do I put it….." Clawhauser said trying to think about it. "She's just been acting rather odd lately."

"Odd how?"

"Well like doing stuff behind our backs odd, and not even figuratively for that matter."

"He's telling the truth." Richard said looking at the lie detector chart.

"Thanks Richard." Z said. "So can you give us an example on how she might have expressed this behaviour towards you or anyone in the group?"

"Well, the weirdest occurrence was back after the shootout happened at the Cliffside Asylum" Clawhauser explained. "When we began walking back to the warehouse, I saw her with her paws inside the case. Now I didn't want to jump to any conclusions, so I asked her about it and she said she was just making sure everything was still in there."

"That sounds like a decent enough reason, why would you doubt it?"

"Because she had already confirmed all the money was in the case back inside the Asylum before the shooting happened."

"Interesting…." Z said, as he was writing notes about it.

"But don't get me wrong, I'm just saying what I was thinking at the time."

"No, don't worry I get it." Z said. "But just in case, I'll keep that thought in mind."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 28, Returning To Fear**


	29. Returning To Fear

**Chapter 28: Returning To Fear**

March 18th, 2017, the next day after the death of Clawhauser

It had been a long night four the four mammals still in the cells after most of them had had a surprise visit from their relatives. They weren't positively sure what the occasion was for, but some had a hunch that it didn't mean anything good.

" _Tap, tap, tap, tap….."_

The sounds of water dripping from the sewer walls were mostly the only sounds that would ever come out of the four mammal's cell. None of them ever had a plan to escape, nor did they ever have anything to say to each other, so they just stuck to their own personal bubble until further notice.

Stu was still and always the most concerned out of the four in the cell for what was to come in the mere future for them, but his thoughts were mainly about his daughter Judy's safety. If anything were to happen to her during all of this, he knew he wouldn't be able to see a pleasant end after all that has happened so far.

Ellie Clawhauser and Sherry Wolford did fear for worse outcomes to come too, but they knew there was no point in thinking about it when that time had never come for nearly four months now after the death of Finnick's mother Maria Masto.

As for Chip, ever since he heard about the death of his mother he has still refused to move from the same corner he has been sitting in. He has never responded to a single one of the questions the other three have tried to ask him for months now. They eventually gave up and tried to pretend now he never existed to them.

"CLANK, CLANK, CLANK!"

When they heard the sounds of clanking on the cell bars, the four all turned their heads to see what it was about.

"Rise and shine campers!" Noah, the main guard for the cell called out. "Jeez, you all look like hell in those clothes."

"If there's anything else you think we can use then be our guest." Sherry said.

"That's actually a funny coincidence you say that now that you mention it." Noah chuckled. "Because in my paws right now are some of the fresh and cleanest clothes you four have seen in months! I mean not to be picky, but the other mammals clothing choices in here as well aren't exactly what I would call stylish if you get my drift."

"Those look like the dark orange jumpsuits only inmates would use in prison." Ellie complained.

"Yea well, this is sort of a prison, and you all do sort of act like inmates to myself and Z especially."

"And for like the fiftieth time now, who is this Z mammal you keep referring to us?" Stu asked. "What is he, your boss or something? I mean we'd ask Chip, but he's not one to talk right now."

"And the answer to that Mr. Hopps is once again still in the land of none of your business." Noah replied. "But before we go any further with this, there's something I need to discuss privately with one of you."

"Privately, which one?" Stu asked.

"Her." Noah replied, pointing to Ellie.

Ellie looked around to see if there was anyone else near her to see if Noah was possibly pointing to someone else. "M-me?" She asked pointing to herself.

"Yep." Noah replied, as he was unlocking and opening the cell. "We need to have a private conversation with you for a moment before you can put these on."

"We?"

"Yea, me and maybe a few other guards, unless you really want them outside for safety issues."

"If you please."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Girls can be so picky sometimes." He mumbled. "Fine, I'll inform them to wait outside."

Ellie didn't see a reason on why they would want to talk with her privately, but she knew anywhere to be was better than the cell she had been stuck inside for so long, she eventually gave up on counting the days.

She sighed. "Alright, whatever but it better not be too long with whatever it is you want to talk to me about."

"Miss Clawhauser, I can assure you this won't take too long, and that it will definitely be fast enough for your needs." Noah assured her. "Now while I'm discussing private matters with Miss Clawhauser here, I suggest you put those on instead of keeping those reeky rags on you for the rest of your time here." He said, as he threw the clothing inside the cell.

Ellie then got up and walked over to the cell door where Noah was. Once she was out of the cell, Noah closed the cell door and locked it, mostly just to make sure no one would be getting any funny ideas while their conversation was going on.

"This way please." Noah said, as he began walking down the hallway to the nearby break room the guards would usually go to for a break. When he opened it, Ellie was surprised to see how similar it was to the cell she and the others were forced to stay in. The only difference was they had a room with the basic kitchen equipment such as microwaves, a fridge, a rusty looking oven, and some normal looking tables and chairs in the middle.

"So, what the scoop here?" Ellie asked.

"Have a seat over there please." Noah requested, pointing to the chair. "Would you like some water?"

"Uh, sure." Ellie replied. "I mean if it's better than the water we're typically given."

"It is." Noah replied, as he poured some water into the glass. He then put the glass on the table while climbing onto the chair sitting in front of Ellie. "Drink up."

"The drink looks foggy, you call this good water?"

"I said it was better than what you would usually have, not crystal clear."

Ellie sighed. "Whatever." She said, as she started drinking it until there was not a drip left in it. "It's got a weird taste to it."

"It happens sometimes with those drinks, some taste buds just aren't the same then really the same if you ask me." Noah admitted. "But enough about that, it's time to talk serious here."

"Oh yea, what is it you wanted to inform me about?"

"Well Miss Clawhauser, last night some horrible things happened down in the storage room where my boss would usually store his goods for buyers to come." Noah explained. "Your brother Benjamin Clawhauser and his four other friends were brought down there, but not willingly."

"Okay, but what happened?"

"So, the reason they were brought there was because my boss was certain it was one of those five that was the main cause of a series of attacks that had recently happened in the city."

Ellie didn't seem like where this was going. "What sort of attacks?"

"Ugh, I don't have time to explain it all, I've already explained it enough times to a bunch of my guys by now." Noah said. "The point is he knew it was one of those five who did it."

"Yes, and who was it?"

"Your brother."

Ellie gasped. "Woah, woah wait, what?"

"He did something that caused the deaths of two of our own crew members, as well as a police officer from the ZPD."

'WHAT?!" Ellie shouted. "No, no, no, there's got to be some kind of mistake then. Benjamin would never do anything involving death! It had to have been accidental or indirect right?"

"I'm afraid not, he knew exactly what he was doing and the outcome of it." Noah replied. "And that made my boss to go to such drastic measures because of him."

"W-what did your boss do to him?"

"What he does to anyone who crosses the boundary line in his perspective." Noah replied crossing his arms. "He put a bullet in his head."

Ellie then immediately stood up from her seat, as her body was enraged from what the koala had just said. "T-that's a joke right? IT'S GOT TO BE A JOKE!" She shouted, as Noah shook his head.

"As I've said already Miss Clawhauser, I'm afraid not."

"No, no…" Ellie mummured, as tears began to come out of her. "It's you mammals…. it's because of all of you that made him do it wasn't it…. WASN'T IT!"

She was about to punch Noah in the face over rage, but was stopped from her own body as she started to get a massive headache out of nowhere.

"Aw, what's wrong, feeling a little light headed?" Noah asked, as Ellie collapsed to her knees while still holding onto the table.

"What…. What's happening to me?" She asked, starting to have trouble with breathing.

"That would be the rat poison I just gave you." Noah replied. "I slipped a fair amount of it in your drink because I knew how you would react to this, and I wasn't interested in any sort of violence to be happening from your reaction to all of this." He explained, as Ellie then collapsed to the floor while coughing up blood.

"You dirty little rascal…." Ellie said, as she continued to cough.

Noah then got out of his chair and walked over to Ellies face. "There was one more thing I wanted to let you know about by the way. You see, the main reason we have kept you here is to be used as motivation for your brother and possibly the other mammals that have taken part in this little ordeal of theirs. However, your services are no longer required now that he's parted ways from the land of the living. That's I why I put enough poison in there to go into a state of comatose, and eventual death soon after. You see Miss Clawhauser, we can't just let you go and make you pretend like nothing ever happened, because that's not how it works in this business."

Ellie wanted to strangle the life out of Noah right now, but was unable to as she couldn't move or feel any part of her body. She then began to see nothing but blurs all around her, as Noah continued to speak.

"You can never know when to trust a mammal or not, and it exactly goes with what had just happened. You took the drink because you trusted there was nothing wrong with it, and that's exactly how lies and truths together are played out. You can say it's a glass of water, but you wouldn't say it has something in it. It's basically what I did. All I'm saying is that for your case, you say you won't tell anyone, but right when you get out you would just tell certain mammals who would eventually just go to the ZPD and screw us all over anyways."

Ellie continued to growl at him, but it grew less as she began to feel weaker, and continuing to have a bigger problem with breathing. "Screw you…." She mumbled.

"That right there Miss Clawhauser, is what _I_ would refer to as the lie of a truth."

Ellie then used her last bit of strength to reach her paw for Noah to even to the slightest scratch to him over anger, before dropping it and closing her eyes with Noah standing over her watching it in the process.

* * *

March 19th, 2017, the next day

The sounds of typical radio songs were playing in the background on Nick's alarm clock for hours now, but he never bothered to turn it off, nor did he ever bother to even get up from his bed. After what happened only a couple nights ago, he felt like now he had lost hope in ever getting out of the rabbit hole with Z.

Just then, he heard some knocking on his bedroom door. "For the seventh time now Amber, I'll come out when I want to come out."

 _"_ _Oh yes of course, like you expect me to know why you've been acting all silent lately."_ Amber said on the other side of the door. " _Listen Nick, I may not know what happened that night, but the fact that you already missed work the other day only makes it more suspicious on yourself. So you need to get your act together soon before anything else starts to come up."_

"You don't know what happened Amber, so you can't talk crap to me and think I'll just be filled with sunshine and rainbows once more."

 _"_ _Fair point, but then again how about you just tell me what it is that happened."_

Nick exhaled deeply in frustration. "Amber, why don't you just go make an omelette, watch tv, take a nap or something because I'm definitely not in the mood for this!"

 _"_ _Because I've been becoming worried for you lately Nick!"_ Amber shouted back. _"All this stuff about you doing trades for Z, and now a mammal showing up on your doorstep with a gun on you? That's not what I would consider natural Nick!"_

"Just leave me alone already Amber!" Nick yelled. "I never asked you to be worried for me so that's your problem, not mine."

" _Oh my god Nick, now you're just acting immature!"_ Amber continued to shout. _"So your saying I'm just supposed to ignore this like you don't exist?"_

"That would be very helpful actually."

 _"_ _Yea well guess what Nick, you do exist!"_ Amber countered. _"So I'm not dropping this until I hear some reasoning with whatever it is you're acting so stupid about!"_

"Well then I guess you're going to be there all day then huh?"

" _Well if that's what it takes for you to get out of there, I mean you haven't left that room to even go to the bathroom for two days now!"_

"I just never felt like I needed to."

 _"_ _Ugh, you know what forget it then."_ Amber said giving up. " _You can act like a child all you want until you leave there, but you should know that it isn't going to get you anywhere as it is no matter what you're thinking about!"_

Nick rolled his eyes. "Uh huh, I'll be sure to keep that in mind." He said sarcastically.

As he heard loud stomps from outside of his room, he knew she probably wasn't going to give up on asking her about the incident that happened. But even if he knew that fact, he chose to ignore as he felt like he didn't have the mental strength to do something about it.

* * *

 _"_ _It's your fault. You just sat there and watched your own friend die, and you call yourself an officer of the law. Everything you have done so far has been for nothing but saving yourself. Numerous mammals who deserved to live more than you have now died, and you still think it's okay to continue breathing? No, you're nothing Judy. Nothing…. Nothing…. Nothing…. Nothing…"_

"Hopps!" A voice called out.

Judy then snapped back into reality as she heard an officer call out her name in the ZPD. "Uh yea what is it Snarlov?"

"It's almost time and you're the last mammal left to come." Snarlov replied. "Bogo will be making announcements in the bullpen soon so you might want to head over there, you wouldn't want to miss any of the recent ones since Bogo wants to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. Well after all, I'm sure everyone wants to know about any new info about Clawhauser right now don't you think?"

"Yea, I'll bet…" Judy said. "I-I'll be there in a minute don't worry."

"Gotcha." Snarlov said. "But just make sure you aren't taking your time too much if you know what I mean."

Judy chuckled. "Sure thing."

Once Snarlov was out of Judy's sights, she exhaled deeply being thankful noticed he never noticed her gloomy attitude today. But after what had just happened and what she was forced to see in front of her own two eyes, she still couldn't help but feel that she was to blame for what happened. Now every time she sees the empty front desk where Clawhauser would normally be, it only makes her feel as if she's returning to fear all over again.

Judy took a deep breath and tried to keep calm, at least in front of others. "Judy stay calm, there's no room for negativity right now of all times." She mumbled to herself. "We can… we can work this all out somehow, but right now is the hard part is to keep it together. Keep it together, and then we think of a way around this."

Trying her best to act as confident as she could, she began walking over to the bullpen with a normal face on her in order to continue blending in with the other officers.

As usual, there were still multiple mammals buzzing about the strange and bizarre cases involving weapons around the city, as it was all still a giant blur to most of the officers of how all of this even started in the first place. When Judy sat down, the other officers couldn't help but feel she was being a little quieter than her old confident self.

"Hey Judy, you feeling okay there?" Officer Mchorn asked.

Judy then looked up at Mchorn hesitating on what to say. "Uh, yea. Yeayea just, couldn't really get much sleep last night. It's just all the piles of cases we've been getting so far this year, it's really put a toll on me."

"In what way?"

"Well, in a way that involves safety for the city for one." Judy replied. "And in a way which means I've got a lot of paperwork to be doing in the next few days or so after a patrol."

Mchorn smiled a little. "Yea I'm sure it's the same deal as everyone around here, including myself." Mchorn admitted. "I mean with the misses feeling worried twenty-four seven about me due to seeing what's been talked about a lot on the news, I've got a lot to juggle with for myself."

"I know what you mean." Judy said. "My mom has been calling and texting me all the time about any possible clues on where my father could be after he disappeared. It's definitely a nightmare telling her I don't know, and sometimes even to myself."

"Why don't you just tell her you would say something when you find anything about it?"

"Believe me, I have tried that numerous times now on her." Judy replied. "But every time I tell her that, she always calls about it the next day, or the day after. You can't blame mammals like my mother though. After their marriage, they haven't been away from each other for more than just a few days. But months…. That's a whole other ballpark right there."

Mchorn nodded to her, knowing that if he were ever in a situation such as that alive or dead, his wife would probably think and act the same as well. But for Judy, the thought had already been happening to her for months now with herself not forgetting to think about it for even a moment.

A few momments later, Bogo came out of his office holding folders like he usually would as he approached the wooden stand.

"Alright, alright, quiet down now!" Bogo shouted, as the officers were finishing up with their conversations. "Now before I begin with handing out your assignments today, I am completely aware of some of the rumors that have been going around about dispatch officer Clawhauser."

Judy hated herself every time she heard that name come up. _"Hold it together Judy and if anything, don't do anything you'll regret doing again."_

"So I have decided to put those rumors to rest, because they are in fact true." Bogo confessed, as murmurs began to go around the bullpen. "Officer Clawhauser was not picking up his phone for the past couple days in regards to his reasoning for not showing up to work. Furthermore when some of our officers went to check up on him at his home, there was no trace of him to signify he was still in his apartment room."

One of the officers in their room raised their paw to ask a question. _"Do we know the reasoning behind why he disappeared?"_

"I can understand some of you may be a little baffled as to why officer Clawhauser would be missing, but after a still unexplained attack in an alleyway that also took the life of one of our fellow officers, we believe Clawhauser may have gotten unlucky and ran into the same mammals we have been looking for quite some time now." Bogo explained. "Which once again brings us to the conclusion that all of you need to find one of these mammals, anyone that looks even remotely suspicious to you and bring them in to see what they may know."

As much as Judy wanted to do so, she knew Z had an army and it wouldn't change a thing no matter who they would possibly bring in from Z's crew.

"Alright, enough about that, time for assignments." Bogo said.

Once Bogo finished handing out all the assignments to the rest of the officers as they left the room, Judy was the last one left to be shown her assignment she would have to be doing alone once more today.

"Officer Hopps, I'm aware your partner officer Wilde has not been here for the past couple of days now." Bogo stated. "And since we already have enough officers on the streets because of recent events, I'll let you take it easy today and let you go upstairs to catch up on any paperwork you may have to finish up for me. But just for today though, and remind Wilde he shouldn't force himself to come with the flu, but that we need him back as soon as he gets better."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." Judy said, as she began walking towards the door.

"Oh and Hopps!" Bogo called out to Judy, as she was just about to leave the room but stopping. "Always watch your back on those streets."

Judy thought in her mind that meant something completely different, but she saw through it and knew Bogo was just saying it as an encouraging tactic for her.

She tried her best to give a good smile towards him just like her normal self would. "I'll try my best!" She shouted back, as she continued to walk out the door.

While she was upstairs trying to catch up on some of her patrol reports, the one thing she couldn't help but think about that was on her mind was Z. She knew she had already recently looked at Z and some of his mammal's profiles, but she wanted to gather more information on them to see if she could possibly connect all of them to the same thing somehow.

Making sure nobody noticed, she went through Z including some of his crew members she looked at when researching more about the highway accident he was involved, and got away with sixteen years ago. She then began printing a few of the profiles so she could keep them around as notes in case she ever needed to. But as she was printing them, officer Wolford was walking by noticing it.

"Oh hey Judy, what's up?" Wolford asked.

Judy didn't want to get caught while in the middle of this, so she tried to play along. "Uh I'm doing fine myself Wolford, why do you ask?"

"Oh nothing, it's just that I don't always see you on this floor during daytime." Wolford replied.

"Oh well yea, Nick still has the darn flu on him so Bogo let me continue with some of the reports and paperwork I still have to do."

"Well lucky you then." Wolford said laughing a little. "Sounds to me like you're being let off easy by the chief today."

Judy shrugged. "Yea, I guess that's one way of putting it."

The large amount of paper Wolford saw being printed by Judy did start to catch his attention however. "What's with the ton of papers your printing here Hopps?" He asked taking one of the slips of paper. "Who is this Billy Vansnow polar bear here?"

Judy knew this didn't mean good with Wolford taking a look at some of the profiles of Z's crew. She tried to think of a logical answer, but was delayed with the stress put on her right now.

"What about this zebra guy here-"

Judy then snatched the two profiles from Wolford's paws before he could look at anything else he was supposed to. "How about you mind reading others reports if you please?" She asked.

"Wolford chuckled. "Alright, alright, no need to claw at each other over a few silly reports on some mammals is all." He said with his paws up, as he was walking away.

Judy rolled her eyes knowing the distractions was over, as she took the rest of the profiles and went back over to her desk. She checked to make sure they were all there, as she put them in her back pocket to take home for safe keeping. Afterwards, she continued to finish up the rest of her reports for the remainder of the day.

Sunset eventually came around and there was still no sign of Nick anywhere around the ZPD. " _What does he think he's doing?"_ Judy thought. " _I better phone him to see what's up."_

She then took her phone out and dialed Nick's number. Even though she understood Nick was probably feeling guilty about the incident with Clawhauser as well, she didn't think he would need to take days off of work to be dealing with his emotions. While she was waiting for him to pick up, she heard a voice on the other end.

"Nick, Nick is that you?" Judy asked.

The voice on the other end sighed. _"What do you want now carrots?"_ Nick asked. _"Don't you know this is like the fifth time you've called me in a couple of days?"_

"Well the craziest thing happened to me today while I was at work." Judy said. "I was sitting alone in the bullpen today. It's weird because usually I would have a certain fox friend sitting next to me but he wasn't there today. Why is that? Oh yea that's right, you weren't there Nick."

 _"_ _Stop talking to me like I'm the stupid one here Judy, you know exactly why you haven't seen me around."_ Nick retaliated. _"And for the record, I'm actually quite surprised you, Danny, or hell even Finnick aren't doing the same."_

"Wait, you talked to them?"

 _"_ _Of course I have, in fact they called me in the first place."_ Nick replied. _"Danny mainly wanted to know what our next move was from here, so I just hung up on him after that."_

"Why would you have done that?"

 _"_ _Judy, do I look like I'm the guy with all the plans here?"_

Judy actually did think about it for a second, but then realized Nick was looking for a certain answer from her. "No, I guess not. But what about with Finnick, what did he want to know?"

 _"_ _He didn't want to know anything actually."_ Nick replied. _"It sounded like he was just trying to sweet talk with me about defending himself with the secret Z told us about him."_

"Secret, what secret?"

 _"_ _Judy for the last time, don't act like-"_ Nick said pausing, after realizing why she didn't know. _"Oh yea that's right, one of Z's guys knocked you unconscious so you never heard about his secret."_

"Yea, that must be it." Judy said. "So what was it?"

 _"_ _It's not like it matters right now, but apparently a while back Finnick was responsible for numerous convenience store robberies."_ Nick answered. _"Z said he even knocked an otter store clerk unconscious because he wasn't coughing over the money in the register."_

"Oh god…" Judy mummured. "Was he ever convicted of it?"

 _"_ _I asked him that as well and he says he was, but there wasn't enough evidence to put on him for an arrest."_

"How in anyway can he try to defend something like that to you?"

 _"_ _I don't know, I think he said something about how bad his money troubles were back in the day, I think he also added something about his mother being sick too."_

"And do you believe him?"

 _"_ _The money troubles part yes because he has already with me, but the part with helping his sick mother no."_ Nick replied. _"No mammal would do something as bad as he did to that store clerk when you are already seeing enough mammals in pain as it is."_

"You know, while we're on this topic Nick I'd like to ask you, what was _your_ secret Z found out about you?"

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a moment. _"Why do you want know Judy?"_

"Because it's better if we don't keep any secrets from each other, you know what could happen Nick." Judy whispered, still trying to make sure no one could hear. "Think about what happened to Clawhauser!"

 _"_ _Alright then how about this, what's your secret Z found out about Judy?"_

"Nick trust me when I say this, mine is one that is better off not knowing." Judy replied. "If I told you what it was, it would only put more funny ideas into some mammal's heads."

 _"_ _Are you seriously kidding me right now Judy?"_ Nick asked frustrated. _"Well then I guess it's better off not knowing about mine to then, huh?"_

"Nick that's not what I-" Judy said pausing herself. "You know what I'm not going to argue with you about this. If you want to act like a kit right now then that's your decision."

* * *

"Act like a kit, you're the one who asked me about it in the first place!" Nick shouted, as he was still on the phone with Judy. "You ask me to tell my secret to you and are now saying to me you can't tell me yours? Where's the fairness in any of this?"

 _"_ _Because it's for good reasoning!"_ Judy shouted back.

"Uh huh, _good reasoning_." Nick said sarcastically.

 _"_ _Nick think about it on how you want to see it, but let me just tell you I am not planning on returning to fear anytime soon!"_ Judy argued. _"You can moan, you can cry, and you can miss work all you want, but that just proves you have already given up on ever overcoming your fears!"_

And just like that, Judy hung up the phone. In aggravation, Nick threw his phone as hard as he could onto the couch as he went over to sit on the kitchen seats with his head on the table.

A few moments later, he felt another paw on his. When he looked up, he saw Amber sitting opposite of him.

"You know it's funny." Nick said. "For so many years, I've tried to never let anyone see that they got to me. I was just a kit, who happened to be bullied only for what kind of a species he was. I obviously never knew enough, or even anything about adulthood because it looks like they really have gotten to me."

"Nick, this is _nothing_ like mammals 'getting to you' in life." Amber said. "You have just seen too many things in these past months no mammal would ever dare to see in their entire lifetime. It never is, and never will be normal to see the mammals you love get taken away right in front of you."

"I'll say." Nick mumbled to himself.

"I'm always here for you if you need help Nick, I want to help you through all of this as well." Amber said pleaded. "I mean you've done so much for me already, I feel like I want to try and return the favour. We've both been through the same ordeals, the same problems. _We can still help each other._ So please, just talk to me about what happened."

Nick took a moment to think about what Amber had just told him. But without a sign of gratitude towards her, Nick stood up.

"I've never been the one to ask others for help Amber, and I'm not going to start today." Nick said, as he began walking back to his room. "I could tell you the story, but I don't need any assistance in this mess I, and no one else should have to clean up for me."

"Mammal's all need help sometimes Nick." Amber said stopping Nick. "You should know that even the toughest mammal in the world will need a helping paw along the way. Otherwise, who will they have to look up too?"

Nick knew Amber was just trying to persuade her more, but still continued to shrug it off as he continued walking back to his room and closing the door.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 29, Far from Freedom**


	30. Far From Freedom

**Chapter 29: Far From Freedom**

December 9th, 2018, location unknown

"I'm telling you this now, you should just get out while you can." The mammal said. "I can… I can find someone else, I can find someone that can take your place so you don't have to be-"

"Ssshhh." The other mammal said putting her paw on the other mammal's lips. "Hon, just know this is not something you're making me do. I don't care if all of this fails and I die in the process of it. This is something I want to do for _you_ , and only you."

"But still…. If anything were to happen to you, I-I would just be-"

The male mammal was interrupted after being kissed by the female mammal. "Let's call it a promise then." The female mammal said. "Promise me you will make it out alive, and I can promise you I will too."

The male mammal nodded with a little smile. "Then it's settled. One more step to this before we can finish it all. And if both of us somehow pull through this in the end, I swear to you I will never stop looking for you after it happens."

The female mammal chuckled. "That to my ears sounds somewhat like a proposal." She said in a humorous way. But when she saw the looks on the other mammal's face, she thought it may not have been meant to be. "Oh my god, is it?"

The male mammal smiled. "I don't know, I guess we'll just have to wait for the time to come and see for ourselves."

* * *

May 30th, 2017, more than two months after the death of Clawhauser

Two long months have passed for Nick, Judy, Finnick and Danny. All four of them have still been forced to continue with the weapon trades for Z. If they didn't, all of them knew they would all end up just like Clawhauser at that rate. All of them understood the fact that they had to do these jobs if they wanted them and their remaining relatives left to stay breathing, but it wasn't like they enjoyed doing what they were doing.

It took Nick a little while longer after the night in the storage room to recover, but a few days later he was able to go back to work. But even with him returning, his emotions still stuck with him along the way. Work had been surprisingly average for the past couple months now that nothing else and no other events had sprung up for the ZPD to inspect on. But as for Nick and the others, they were all still stuck with weapon trades at least through half their weeks.

It had been an exhausting time for the four now that they had been doing all of these trades more frequently now. Judy even thought that they were the only ones who had been doing the trades with no one else from Z's crew doing it, most because of how many trades they have had to do weekly. All the times they had been doing the trades have felt like nothing but fear between the four mammals. And at the rate they were going with how many trades they had to do, they were all presumed to being far from freedom anytime soon.

Judy had even lost track now of how many trades she and her friends have done now. Along with that, even though the number went from five to four now that Clawhauser was gone, they were still nicknamed on the street as the mysterious five. Judy assumed the name of it must have been so catchy for others that they didn't even decide to bother changing it, or they still didn't know about one of them having been already killed.

It was another typical afternoon as Nick and Judy were on break at a nearby fast food restaurant when something had just occurred to Nick.

"You know I just realized something carrots." Nick said.

"What?" Judy asked.

"It has now been exactly one year since the incident down at the cheesecake store." Nick replied. "One year… wow."

Judy was surprised to realize that as well. "Is that really how long it's been?" She wondered. "You know I've heard the saying time flies when you're having fun, but I never knew time could also fly when you're trapped inside a nightmare."

"More like a nightmare you just want to get over with." Nick said. "A really, really annoying one…"

Judy nodded agreeing with him. "So outside of that, how's the life of a fox for yourself?"

"Oh you know, I wish I could say it's normal but you know that won't be happening anytime soon." Nick replied. "I mean we have been forced to go outside the law for about a year now, not to mention we're working for it at the ZPD, and in the process I've been working my tail off making sure a missing fox is staying that way."

"Oh yea speaking of which, how has Amber been holding up while staying at your place for months?"

"Eh, to put it short, she's managing." Nick replied. "First of all, my place definitely doesn't seem to be her style first of all, and second it's a pain to always have to put a blanket over her when we hear a knock on the door now. Third, she's been pretty stubborn at times as well, but I suppose that's how all girls would usually act."

"Hey!" Judy shouted throwing crumbs at Nick.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Nick said laughing. "But all in all with her carrots, things have been alright."

"Alright?" Judy wondered. "Are you sure it's just _Alright_ with you and her?"

Nick wasn't understanding her drift. "What are you talking about carrots?"

"Oh come on Nick, don't you think it's a bit more than that by now?"

"Hold on, are you thinking me and Amber are actually…" He asked pausing himself, as Judy slowly nodded. "Pffft as if. Look I get she's also a vixen, and that I just so happen to be single, but I'm sure there have been a bunch of times with mammals such as this circumstance that never stay together in the end."

"Wait a minute, what did you mean by never _staying_ together in the end?"

Nick realized Judy may have just cornered him with that question. "Uh… you know what I think I may have just worded that wrong, maybe just saying they never end up _being_ together in the end is better… yea."

"Oh my god." Judy said, as she was clearly seeing through Nick's lies. "Are you two actually like, together?"

Nick wasn't sure how to respond. "W-what? Where did you get that assumption from in the first place anyways? Like I said, it doesn't always work like that Judy."

Judy smiled. "You hesitated."

Nick knew Judy was already too deep into it to quit on the question she was asking him. "… Together is a pretty strong word for it carrots." He said rubbing his neck.

Judy slapped her paw on the table. "I knew it! I totally knew it!"

"Wait, how could you have known about it?"

"Nick, it's not like I don't know anything about common sense." Judy replied." There's no way someone like you would miss out a chance on a vixen like her."

Nick rolled his eyes. "It's not a big deal Judy, we just have similar interests is all."

"Similar enough to be touching lips?" Judy asked still smiling.

Nick started to get a little bothered by the conversation. "Look can we just talk about something else please? It's bad enough you're trying to sneak in on my personal life."

Judy chuckled. "Alright, alright, just trying to get a laugh or two is all."

Nick started to smile a little. "Okay, it was a little silly."

Judy's smile towards Nick began to fade a little on her face. "I mean, it's not like we get very many of those moments now."

Nick sighed as he knew when Judy said that, she meant it in a serious way. "I know what you mean. You're not alone there though Judy, it's been tough on all of us for a while now. The hard part about it is giving in to all this craziness that's been happening to the city."

"And do you know what's worse than being a part of it all right now Nick?" Judy asked, as Nick shrugged in reply. "It's taking a toll on you personally when being a part of it all. It's animal nature. You see some animal on live television with a knife put on their throat and it catches another animal's attention watching it. But when they realize the animal on the television screen is your relative, then they just go screaming and crying while hoping it ends well for the relative. That is pretty much my feelings about this all in a matchbox."

"What, are you saying you don't care anything about yourself?"

"There's a lot more things I need to worry about first before I worry about myself Nick." Judy replied. "Every day, I still can't help but feel worried about my dad's safety. If Z's mammals actually did what he ordered his mammals to do to Clawhauser's sister Ellie in that cell, then that means it's just my father, Danny's mother Sherry, and Chip left in there."

"I still don't understand why they're keep Chip alive still." Nick said. "He ratted out to Clawhauser on the day he was supposed to be killed, but instead got two of Z's mammals killed. What use does Z have for him?"

"I don't actually think he does." Judy replied. "But it probably must be some sort of a rule in Z's crew involving mammals such as him. One of them probably goes something like, 'if you rat on us, you will never see the light of day again'."

"That's what I would call a slow and painful death." Nick said sipping on his drink. "But nevertheless, he doesn't seem to care. A least not by how we saw him, he's probably still ticked at himself about his mother's death and not being there for when he should have."

"Yea, but you can't really blame him for being that way though." Judy said. "After all, it's exactly the same thing I'm afraid of happening to myself."

"Well then I guess we just have to make sure it doesn't come to that, right?"

"You make it sound so easy."

"It can be, depending on what road we all choose to go on next?"

"What kind of roads are you thinking about then?"

"Well the way I see it, we've got two options now and frankly ever since the start of all this." Nick replied. "Option one is we try to stop Z with him and his business, and somehow getting him to not suspect us so none of his crew will go and kill any more of our family members. Option two, we give in to all of this. We accept that we are now criminals and have to do as many trades for Z as we can until they let the three out of the cells, including your father. So we may end up letting Z boss us around as if we're pets of his on a leash, but no more animals have to die because of us at the very least."

"What, you think just because we're forced to work for a psycho means were criminals now?" Judy asked. "Nick I am not a criminal. I didn't come to Zootopia to become one, I came here to make this city a better place for Christ's sake."

"I know what you mean Judy, but what we've been doing is something we've been on for a while now." Nick brought up. "We may be doing this to protect mammal's lives here, but what we have done so far around is already known as a criminal group to the city. They even gave us a name for it now."

"Yes, yes, I know they have been calling us the mysterious five but names don't matter enough to prove we're actually criminals here Nick." Judy said. "Once we have figured this all out, then we can tell the ZPD _everything_ that has happened to us and we'll be alright."

"Okay Judy, say it actually was true and we somehow figured this all out and were able to tell them everything." Nick explained. "Are you positive the ZPD will just let us slide from all of this? They could give us at least a dozen charges and we would be lucky to get off at least three quarters of them and I mean if we're _very_ , _very_ lucky. Like I said, we've been at this for a year now without saying a word to the ZPD about it. Especially because we're cops, that right there is disrespecting the badges on us to a point where it puts us to shame."

Judy though about for a moment, realizing now it really was too late to get away from all of this. "I-I didn't know what else I could do Nick, none of us still do! You tell me right now what the hell I'm supposed to do then, because it seems like I have no clue anymore."

Nick laid back on his chair and shrugged. " _I don't know."_ He said sincerely.

Judy still couldn't believe Nick's words still coming out of him. "Forget it, I think it's time we went back on duty anyways." She said, as she got out of her seat and began walking towards the door.

Nick sighed as he got out of his chair as well. "Right behind you."

* * *

Later that evening.

Judy mostly ate her dinner slowly since everyday now she was never in the happiest mood to eat. Nevertheless, she had to eat to eat it if she wanted to live. After her talk with Nick today, she still couldn't help but feel he could possibly be right about what he told her.

 _"_ _Am I really… a criminal now?"_ Judy thought.

After she was finished eating the rest of her dinner, she dressed into her pajamas, got onto her bed and sat against the wall crossing her arms. For the last couple months the one thing she and Nick never had was a plan. Night after night it was all she could think about if she ever wanted to stop all of what Z and his crew have done to the city. She decided to get off her bed and research a few more notes she had already taken from the ZPD about Z and some of the mammals working for him.

She turned on the lamp on her desk and opened her bottom drawer pulling a few files out with it. One of the files she first looked at was Z's.

"Zamiel Zarlow Stripes…" Judy mumbled to herself, as she said Z's full name. "Works as an accountant at the piggy bank, a very resourceful one it seems." She said looking at his references of some well-known mammals around Zootopia. "I still can't believe he did a few financial records for Gazelle… This guy must have went to some good schools to _be_ this good. But why would he want to stick with a business that got his entire family murdered in?" She wondered, looking at the status of his mother, father and siblings.

 _"_ _Could it have something to do with him talking about liking the business?"_ Judy thought. _"But gee, must have been some really bad memories that had to have gotten to him that couldn't leave his head if he wanted to stay with this illegal business."_

"Had an ex-wife Francine Stripes, as well as a daughter Zoe stripes." Judy continued to mumble while thinking to herself. "I still can't believe a monster like Z even had his own family. Sounds to me like he wasn't very dad-like if he's divorced while having a kit along the way. But how in the world has he never been accused, or even been put with suspicion on him after all these years? His entire criminal record is crystal clear…"

Judy decided to put away his file for now and focus on some other mammals who worked for him, including Biggy. She thought she could try and find some sort of hope inside one of those files to see if there was something she could do tip the scale into her and her friends favour. After looking through a few more files, she noticed one that seemed to catch her attention a little.

"Richard Panniston…" Judy said examining his file. "He looks like the guy Nick told me about who escorted him over to the cell the night Clawhauser-" She said having trouble saying the last word of the sentence. "Of all the mammals here, this was the only mammal who served time in jail from finding possessions of a weapon on him in public."

* * *

May 31st, 2017, the next day

"So what if he was one of the only mammals to get caught with one on him?" Nick asked, as he and Judy were on a park bench by the fountain in downtown while on one of their days off. "Don't you remember the highway incident Z mentioned about sixteen years ago, why does it make this Richard guy any different from that?"

"Because he's the only mammal to have physically been found with a weapon on him." Judy replied. "I looked into that highway case as well, and in the courtroom all of Z's crew back then claimed they were unaware there were weapons inside their truck. So after the day those weapons suddenly disappeared from the evidence room and with enough witness behind their backs, most likely bribed by Z to make false claims, they were all off the hook. But this guy right here, he was convicted of it, guilty of it and even served a few years for it."

"Well, the ZPD does seem to be desperate lately on finding anyone who may be connected to the weapons case, I'll give you that." Nick admitted. "But how do you expect him to slip up again, wouldn't you think he's more prepared for a slip up such as that now?"

"Well, I've got a few thoughts in my head right now, but I may need your help again."

"No, no, no, no, no, you are not dragging me or anyone else into any of these _ideas_ of yours again." Nick argued. "I gave you enough chances to assist with your so-called plans, and look how that has turned out for us in the past."

"Okay Nick, I get that things haven't exactly been our best way of helpfulness here." Judy said. "But something inside me is telling myself we can't let that zebra beat us! I mean just imagine what else he could do to the city if _we_ do nothing. For all we know, he could have enough power to kill mayor Lionheart and still get away with it. And that's only if he _wants_ to. Imagine what he could do to any number of mammals if he _needed_ to Nick."

"I get where you're going with this Judy, but you need to stop and face the reality of all of this, heck you even said it yourself." Nick said disagreeing. "We _can't_ beat him and every time we try to, more mammals will just continue to die along the way!"

"Sssshhhh!" Judy said shushing Nick. "Not so loud Nick, remember others can still hear you and I!" She whispered.

Nick sighed shaking his head. "You know what, do whatever you want Judy I won't stop you. But I'm not being a part in anything of the 'thoughts in your head' you have to come."

"Oh so that's how it is now?" Judy countered. "You're able to help Z, but you're not able to help a friend in need?"

"Well at least when we assist Z, he doesn't end up blowing someone's brains out at the end of it." Nick shot back. "And for the record Judy, think of this as me trying to help you right now. Because what you're planning to do is a road I would call a dead end, and not in a good way. So why don't you think about your friend, as if he's asking to please don't do what I think you're going to do."

"Well I am going to Nick."

"So now what are you going to do then, break into his house and somehow find a gun of his happening to lay on the welcome mat?" Nick asked. "And _if_ you're able to pull it off, what then genius? how do we know Z won't just _find out_ about it like he always does and will?"

"He won't find out Nick, I can assure you of that." Judy replied. "Okay, maybe I'll have to go outside the law again if I will actually be doing that, but it's for a good cause Nick! You think Robin Hood back then stole all those jewels and gold for himself? No, he stole them for a good cause so he could help all the other mammals in need of it! Same thing goes for what I'm doing here Nick, it may not be right, but it's for the good of the city if we ever want this criminal organization to stop once and for all."

"Wow, round of applause for Judy Hopps here who can be this year's motivational speech winner, bravo!" Nick said sarcastically while slow clapping. "I don't care if you get away with it Judy, do you think something as small as this is going to keep Z from shutting down his entire business? Because it doesn't seem that way to me."

"It's one step at a time Nick, not like it's going to be simple and clear-cut instructions all the time."

"Yea, you keep telling yourself that and see where it gets you." Nick said, as he got up and started walking away.

"Nick where are you going, I'm not finished here!"

"It seems like it is for me!" Nick shouted back, as he continued walking further away from Judy.

"Coward…" Judy mumbled. "It doesn't matter, I doubt I'll need him, I'm sure I can handle this myself." She said to herself with confidence. "…. At least I'm pretty sure I can."

* * *

Later that night.

The darkest clothing Judy had to wear was her black hoodie with the drawing on the face which Z gave to her, as well as her own dark sweatpants. It wasn't easy going through the streets undetected while sneaking out of her own apartment in the process. She wasn't even sure if she would find a way inside this mammals house or not, but it didn't stop her from keeping her hopes up.

Once she arrived at the estate in Sahara square, she took a look around the street making sure there were no other animals nearby but her. She was a little more relaxed to know nobody was home, seeing that there was no car parked in the driveway, and that she couldn't hear anything coming from inside. She looked around the home to see if there was any entry point she could find in order to get her into the house. But after looking a fair amount of time, she came up with nothing as the entire place had been sealed shut.

 _"_ _Come on Judy think."_ Judy thought. _"Where would be a convenient place to get inside a large mammals place like this leopards be?"_

As she continued moving around the house scanning for any opening she could find, she stopped to realize she had only been checking the ground. When she looked up, she noticed a fairly large chimney on top of it.

"Bingo." She whispered to herself.

Judy then climbed up on a nearby fence and jumped far enough to reach the vent pipe. She continued to climb up until she approached the chimney. Before going down it, she looked around just be sure there was still no one around that could see her doing this, especially if the owner of the house were to come back.

When she dropped down into the chimney, she didn't end up falling at a good angle. "Ow, my back…" She mumbled, as she had fallen on her back by a large piece of wood in the fire place she didn't see coming. She opened the glass door on the fire place and positioned the wood again while closing the glass door to make sure it didn't seem too conspicuous that an animal had just fallen down through their chimney.

"Alright, got the easy part over with." Judy told herself. "So if I was a leopard who wanted to hide a gun somewhere where no one would find it, where would I put it?"

She began going around the house looking for any sort of sign that could lead her to a gun. She looked under the couch, inside jars, the top shelf of the closets, behind the table stands, inside all the drawers in the house but not a hint of any sort of weapon was found.

"Okay, maybe I'm thinking about it wrong." She murmured. "Maybe I'm just looking around places I would look. Stupid, stupid, stupid!" She said hitting herself on the head in frustration.

Without any clues to find upstairs, she was determined to try and possibly find something in the basement. In order to make sure neighbors wouldn't find it rather odd the lights were turned on without the owner inside, Judy turned her phone flashlight on to guide her way through the basement. Once she got down there, she saw what she would see from most mammals' basements she would visit. Baskets and boxes, repair tools, unused furniture, an old TV, a freezer, a refrigerator, but still no sign of any gun.

"I really wish Nick could help me on this one, he's probably a better scout than I am for this sort of work." Judy said, still coming up with no guns found. She looked in a toolbox. "Nothing." She said closing it. She looked in all of the boxes. "Nothing." She even looked inside the back of the TV which was not meant to be taken off of. "Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing!" She said while kicking a few of the large boxes near her.

Judy then sighed as she sat down with her back against one of the boxes unzipping her face part of the hoodie. She stretched the fur on her head back still trying to keep it together, but didn't feel like she could.

"What am I doing here?" Judy asked herself. "What do I have left to do that will change anything about my current status in what I would call slavery? My friend is dead, it's my fault I let Bucky and Nick's mother die, Z still has my father and would kill him if I didn't do what he said, what am I supposed to do?!" She said, as tears began rolling out of her eyes.

"You bunnies really are so emotional." A voice in the distant said.

Judy was immediately alerted to the sound coming from the door to the basement, as she pointed hers phone flashlight towards it. When she saw who it was, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"N-Nick?" Judy called out.

"I didn't actually think you would really do it, but it seems like you have after all." Nick said walking towards Judy.

"N-Nick how did you know I would-"

"Judy, if there's one thing I know about you by now, it's that you're always serious when you say something no matter what you're thinking of." Nick replied. "I assumed you would come here after seeing the address on the profile you showed me, and sure enough you did. I have to admit though, using the chimney wasn't that bad of an idea."

"Well how did you get in then?"

"The door was unlocked."

Judy's jaw dropped. "But I thought that…"

Nick chuckled a little. "See that's the thing Judy, you overthink so many times that sometimes the answer is as simples as seeing it right in front of you." He said taking a seat beside her. "Things don't have to be complicated all the time Judy, but act like everything always is."

"I don't know what else to do though Nick, I just don't." Judy admitted. "I get that you think I'm over complicating things too often, and frankly I'm not going to deny that but…"

"But what?"

"But I don't want to feel so useless." Judy replied. "All my life I grew up with a life goal of being more than others say I am, and not just another helpless bunny growing carrots in Bunnyburrow. It's been my drive this entire time. I know it was the stupidest idea to think about a complicated plan such as faking bodies, but I never wanted to feel like the way I am now. A rabbit who did something great, but is now nothing but ineffective."

"You really do put too much blame on yourself Judy." Nick said. "Listen, I'm sorry for being a little sour to you earlier, but you should know all of this that has happened isn't just getting to you. You're not alone in this Judy, and don't you ever think you will be." He said putting his paw on her shoulder.

Judy smiled a little. "Thanks Nick. I know I'm probably just acting like a silly little kit-"

"Oh that doesn't matter right now Judy." Nick said, interrupting her once more. "You know honestly, this isn't really the best place to be having one of these assurance sort of chats."

Judy knew he was probably right. "Okay well, do you want to just leave or…"

"No, if we're here now we might as well look for the gun."

"But Nick, I've checked every spot in this house and I can't find a single one of them."

"Well you know, I myself am pretty decent when it comes to hiding things you know." Nick informed. "And sometimes if I didn't want anyone to find something, I wouldn't just hide somewhere where someone else may just easily stumble upon it."

"Oh, well then where would _you_ put it?"

Nick looked around the basement to see if there was anything out of the ordinary that may appeal to him. His eye then caught something in the distance on the wall. As he began walking towards it, Judy couldn't understand what Nick was seeing.

"Nick what are you looking at?" Judy asked.

When he approached the wall, he put his paw on it moving it around trying to sense something from it.

"Nick it's just a wall, there's nothing really special about it."

"Judy, do you see those cut up lines coming around this area of the plastic wall here?" Nick asked pointing to it. "Those indicate this part right here has already been opened, or ripped apart I guess you can say."

"So, you think there's a gun in there?"

"Only one way to find out."

"RRRRRIP." Went the wall, as Nick opened the already ripped part of the wall.

Nick shoved his paw inside the busted part of the wall when all of a sudden he felt something. He reached deeper inside to grab what was in there and pulled it out. When they both saw what it was, both of their eyes widened.

"It's a handgun." Nick said.

Judy exhaled deeply in relief. "Oh thank you lord."

"Okay, what do you say we call it a night now huh carrots?"

"Definitely." Judy replied. "But one more thing before we leave the street."

Judy and Nick then went back upstairs and walked outside making sure no one was around to see them.

"Looks like the coast is clear." Nick said.

Judy took out the gun they found inside, from her back pocket and dropped it on the mammal's lawn.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Nick asked.

"It's the best way anybody can spot something without the owner of this house noticing it first." Judy replied. "It's not like this Richard guy will notice it during night time since he'd be too tired to even care about looking at his lawn. It doesn't matter if it's a neighbor or if it's just an everyday mammal walking by, either way someone will notice it and report it in before Richard even knew it was there."

"That's quite a gamble we're talking here Judy."

"It may be, but it's the best option right now if we want the blame to go onto him for this instance."

After they dropped the gun in front of Richard's home, they took off from the street and continued onward to downtown where their homes were. While they were walking, both of them thought about what they just did and wondered more on whether this would create a more positive or negative outcome for the days to come.

* * *

June 1st, 2017, the next day

Bogo may love what he does at the ZPD, but the one thing he never likes at the end of the day are cold cases. Sadly for him, it's what he's been seeming to get very often now with the new cases involving guns happening all over Zootopia. Early in the morning when he was looking into the case with Clawhauser's disappearance, he heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Bogo called out.

"Officer Delgato sir." Delgato replied

"Yes do come in please, I wanted to speak with you in fact." Bogo said, as Delgato entered the room. "Now Delgato, would you mind finding a few officers to go over to Clawhauser's apartment to see if they can find anything else that may point somewhere to where he might be?"

"But sir, we've checked his house already a few days after he was pronounced missing." Delgato reminded.

"I understand, but I want the entire apartment checked from up to down this time, no opening cupboards or looking inside the fridge, I mean turning that place inside out."

"I'll see who's up to the task right away then sir." Delgato said.

"Now what was it you wanted to discuss?" Bogo asked while taking his glasses off.

"A few major things actually Chief." Delgato responded. "Do you remember the tiger Damien Willton?"

"The Damien Willton bodyguard from the Cliffside Asylum ambush?" Bogo asked, as Delgato nodded in return. "What about him, he's in witness protection isn't he?"

"Not anymore." Delgato replied, as he plopped a file on his desk. "We found him dead with his throat slit inside the Quarter Jones apartment, where he was staying for the time being after a routined visit from one of our officers."

Bogo was stunned. "What?" He said silently, as he opened the case file looking at the pictures and notes. "Did the apartment floor catch anything on the security cameras in the building?"

"Not enough." Delgato replied. "The estimated time of death was around night time, so it was likely while he was sleeping. There was no sign of anyone entering the floor he was staying on in fact."

"You're not saying they went through the window both in and out are you?"

"Well, there was a balcony where he was staying and the door to it was left open."

"Oh my god…" He said in disbelief, while laying back on his chair continuing to read the files. "Okay, but as for the cameras in the back, what did they catch?"

"We saw a few figures that looked to be the shape of a leopard, goat, and moose climbing a ladder and other obstacles to the top of the building, but it's to our best assumptions as of now."

Bogo still couldn't believe what has been happening all this time now with nothing but murders and disappearances to be left on his mind all the time now.

"Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?" Bogo asked deeply with his hooves on his face in misery.

"Some good news as well actually."

The sound of the words good news immediately snapped Bogo out of his slumped state. "Oh, what do you have?"

"A mammal on Plankton Drive called this morning about seeing a gun left on her neighbor's lawn after she went outside to grab the newspaper." Delgato replied. "And you would _definitely_ want to have a talk with the owner of the property the gun was found on."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 30, Irreversible actions**

 **Also have a happy new year and I'll see you all later for the next chapter in 2017!**


	31. Irriversible Actions

**Chapter 30: Irriversible Actions**

May 31st, 2017, the night before

Finnick wished he didn't always have to walk home from work after working part time all days ever since Nick stopped doing hustles with him, but he thought of it as a sign saying life wouldn't be as simple as hustling mammals for jumbo pops his entire life. He had even been meaning to ask if he could receive a profit for some of the trades Z has had him and the rest of his friends do for quite some time now. But if he did that, he assumed his friends wouldn't take it very lightly to the scenario they have all bee put in.

Finnick didn't like any of the part time jobs he had to do. Most of the time it was because he thought he looked dumb in the uniforms he was supposed to wear whether it was at a fast food restaurant or playing waiter elsewhere, and the fact his bosses always treated him and his other colleagues like slaves who made pennies from what they would usually make on an average weekly salary.

Even though it was a feeling he felt nearly every day now, he had more on his mind to think about than unlikeable bosses. It was night time when he had just finished up grilling some burgers on a stove as he was walking back home. The way he would usually go back home weren't they very friendliest places to be around during night time, but it sure was the fastest for him to get back home.

While he was walking without anyone left to see on the streets, he started hearing voices coming from the alleyway close by. Normally he could care less about mammals talk in the alleyway, but he recognized the street as the same street the machine gun incident took place a couple months back. Curious as to what sort of mammals were over there, he decided to go over and take a look.

When he was close enough for the mammals to not see or hear him behind a nearby trash can, he tried to hear as well as he could on their conversation.

"So Howard, what's been good outside the business of Z's?"

Immediately when Finnick heard the name Z come into play, he knew these two mammals chatting were from Z's crew.

"Eh, okay I guess." Howard replied. "Still can't find a vixen for my life to have a couple of cubs with, but it probably isn't hard for you isn't it?"

"What, why would you say that about me?"

"Come on Ellen, I see how you look at Harvey every time we've got guard duty with him in those sewer cells, don't hide it from me."

Ellen turned away in disgust from what Howard just said. But even so, she still got around to admitting he was right.

"Well he's not a bad piece of meat alright?" Ellen admitted.

Howard laughed as he continued sipping on his beer. "Yea, you and probably other's as well. So hey just as a reminder for next time we're on duty in the cells, who is it we'll be guarding again?"

"I don't remember the names of these two, but I know a mother and father of Z's weapon dealers the mysterious five are in there, and that wolf guy Chip who broke protocol a few months back."

"That's it?" Howard wondered. "The last time I was there, Grant told me there were six to look after."

"Well there were originally six of them, but half of them had to go for separate reasons." Ellen replied. "The first one this vixen was picked to get shot by random chance after Z foiled those mysterious five mammals plans to fool him into thinking they killed some mammals by replacing them with other similar bodies. There was another one I remember recently where one of the mysterious five mammals died, Clawhauser I think his name was so Z decided we didn't need his sister anymore which got her cut from the cell as well."

"Okay but that was just two mammals, what about the third?"

"I'm trying to remember…" Ellen replied. "Oh yea. There was this other female fennec a while back who was kept in there for some time, however she caught a disease."

"Oh, so it was sickness?"

"Nope, the head guard in that cell Noah, I'm sure you know him, saw how sick she was getting so he took his gun out and shot her in the head."

"Oh, that sounds a little harsh for just a sick mammal don't you think?"

"Yea, but I heard he talked to Z about it saying something about making sure it wouldn't spread to the other prisoners and whatnot." Ellen said. "I don't even think that fennec's son knows about the real cause of death of his mother yet."

"Wait, so your saying Z told him she died of sickness?"

"It seems like it, yes."

"Hah, well I should wish him luck on keeping a secret he shouldn't have even kept in the first place."

"Yea but just imagine hearing a call one day saying, 'oh hey, your mothers dead we shot her in the head, have a nice day'."

"Well, when you put it like that I guess it makes a little sense." Howard admitted. "But why would it matter, he's bound to figure it out eventually if he's going to be continuing to stick around with him and his other friends making trades on a weekly basis it seems."

"CLANK, CLANK, CLANK."

Just then, the two mammals heard the sound of something falling over in the corner of the alleyway.

"Did you hear that?" Howard asked.

When Ellen walked towards the other side of the alleyway, she saw a tipped over trash can nearby. "Oh, must have just been one of the raccoon mammals that live around this area of the city." She assumed. "Seriously though, what is it with their obsession of garbage?"

Howard shrugged. "I don't know." He said, as him and Ellen were walking back to the other side of the alleyway.

Finnick ran as fast as he could away from the alleyway. He wasn't even sure himself where he was running off to, but all he could think about was the rage now burning inside of him after hearing what those mammals had just talked about. After a few more minutes of sprinting, he eventually fell to his knees in the middle of a deserted street to catch his breath.

Finnick wanted to keep it under control, but words could not express what he was feeling inside of him right now.

"GYAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" He screamed out loud.

After a few more moments of heavy breathing, he slowly got up with his paws still clenched into a fist. He slowly began walking away from the street and continued walking pretending to other few mammals walking by as if nothing had happened, or that there wasn't anything wrong with him. But inside, he was filled with flames.

 _"_ _That is the last straw."_ Finnick thought. _"I don't care what happens or the actions of it, but I am not kneeling to that no good rotten little striped zebra anymore. He wants to play rough? Oh I'll give him rough."_

* * *

June 1st, 2017, present time

"What have we got here?" Chief Bogo asked, as he was about to talk to someone in one of the interrogation rooms.

"We've got a male leopard, Richard Panniston the owner of the house with the gun that was found on the lawn." Officer Rhinowitz stated.

Bogo was then given the profile of Richard by Rhinowitz. "And the gun found on the lawn was an xd-9, right?"

"Yes, that is correct sir."

"Hmm." Bogo mumbled while reading the profile. "It's definitely not every day you find a handgun such as that simply laying on someone's lawn, especially when the owner of that lawn has already been convicted of a similar sentence in the past."

"We've already tried to get some things out of him on his drive over to the station, but he was talking denial all throughout the ride."

"Well what did you expect from someone like him?" Bogo said rhetorically. "If he is who we think he is, I'm sure he's been instructed on what to do when you're in a pinch with the police."

"So then what do you think is our best course of option with this guy?"

"Well we won't have enough evidence to put a charge on him for the time being until we get the warrant to search his house to see if any more guns are hanging around." Bogo explained. "But for now, I'm going to go in there to see if there's anything I can get out of him."

"It's pointless though Chief, we've already tried."

"But I haven't." Bogo said, opening the interrogation room door. "Mr. Panniston, am I correct?"

"Oh you've got to be kidding me, the chief?" Richard said surprised. "It's bad enough you and your goons out there are all up in my face for hours asking me questions I don't know the answer too."

"They are hardly what you would refer to as goons Mr. Panniston." Bogo said disagreeing. "Those officers out there right now are what have been preventing scums like those weapon manufacturers out there coming at you in your sleep."

"Oh yes and I'm sure you have been doing a great job at that when just recently, you let a tiger die while he was in fricking witness protection." Richard shot back. "Eventually, it almost seems as if you won't be able to protect yourselves."

"We'll see about that then won't we." Bogo said. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to just ask you a few simple questions is all."

"You can ask me as many questions as you want when you find me a lawyer to sit next to." Richard said, refusing to answer.

"Very well, so you're choosing not to answer my questions?" Bogo asked.

Richard was about to say yes, but remembered what Z told him and his other colleagues when being interrogated. The first rule was to play it smart, and make it sound convincing, not like something a cop would typically hear from a guilty mammal.

"I'm just trying to say there's no point in asking me, I'm telling you I don't know anything." Richard claimed.

"Now normally I would believe you since in cases like these, it would be considered a method of evidence planting." Bogo admitted. "However, under the circumstance that has been put under you in your past, this definitely isn't something we can just ignore. You seem to have already been charged with a weapon related incident a few years ago where a mammal spotted you with a gun kept behind your back."

"Oh come on, this again?" Richard asked. "It was just a misunderstanding! I told the officers this in the past, and I'll say the same thing to you now. I was just walking to my mother's one day when I noticed the gun lying on the floor by some condo."

"And you didn't even bother to contact the police about it?"

"Look I'll admit back then at that age I made some pretty dumb decisions, and one of those was this case." Richard replied. "I was just curious to see the mechanism of a gun in-mammal. It's not every day you wake up and find something you never see to the publics eyes laying around on the pavement."

"Yes just like the curiosity of finding knives for some mammals, think about how that may turn out."

Richard began to get agitated with Bogo. "Listen Chief, I served my time for my mistake and I learned from it. I'm not stupid enough to be playing with those silly metal objects again that cost me a few years behind bars. I wouldn't have done something as stupid as leaving it on my lawn in the first place. Now I told you what I know, so what more do you want?"

"Nothing else for the time being in fact." Bogo replied. "You're free to go if you want now, but I must recommend to you, you keep an eye on your own property. You never know who's out there that might try to sabotage it. There could even be a day where you may find a mammal showing up right on your doorstep with a weapon in their paws pointed on you next time." He said, as he was opening the door for Richard.

"I'll do a rain check on that one, certainly." Richard replied, as he got up from his seat and began walking out the door.

"And do watch your step Mr. Panniston, for your own safety." Bogo called out to Richard.

Richard didn't understand what Bogo meant when he said that. "What the hell is that supposed to mean Chief?"

"I mean watch your step on your way out, the caretaker just did some mopping nearby the exit door."

Richard rolled his eyes in disgust, as he assumed Bogo was just trying to get a reaction out of him to only further his suspicions on him. Still, he kept his distance and exited the building while literally watching his step out.

"Do you think they may have been gotten anything from him?" Judy asked Nick, as they saw Richard walking out of the ZPD.

"It's hard to tell right now carrots." Nick replied. "That Richard guy may have been let go from here due lack of evidence, but it doesn't seem like Bogo is completely off his trail yet. In his mind, the odds of being arrested for a possession of a weapon, and then having found one on his lawn to be a coincidence must be pretty slim."

"How do you think Z's going to handle this situation with Richard?"

"Well the way this situation has been played out for him carrots, probably not very well."

"Y-you don't think Z's going to do anything like, rash or…." Judy said, waving her paws at her neck as a sign of killing someone.

"Who Z?" Nick asked. "Please Judy, he can shoot a lot of things but shooting his own crew isn't exactly the brightest idea, even in his mind."

* * *

"What the bloody hell were you thinking Richard?" Z asked, as he was having a talk with Richard a couple hours after he was taken into the ZPD. "You could've just exposed us. You could've just exposed this entire business, you could've exposed ME." He said hitting his hoof on the desk.

"I swear to you Z, I didn't tell them a thing Z." Richard said trying to defend himself. "Now I know how this may sound, but I'm never this sloppy with taking care of my belongings. I've been with you for what, fifteen years now? How could I have possibly done something as stupid as this?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Z replied. "I saw the type of gun they found on your lawn. What was it, an xd-9? It's the most frequent handgun I've seen you use for most of the jobs I've sent you on."

"Okay yes, I'll admit it was my gun they found on the property but I've been prepared for situations like this Z, we all have." Richard confessed. "Every time I put my guns away in my hiding spots around my house, I make sure they're wiped clean so not a fur is found on them to analyze for identification of anyone else who may want to use it."

"They found a gun on your property Richard." Z stated once more. "You know what let me rephrase that, they found _your_ gun on _your_ property."

"I swear Z, I'd tell you how it got on there but I seriously have no idea." Richard claimed. "Are you sure none of our guys came by to my place and it may have slipped out of his or her back?"

"If you remember Richard, we stopped manufacturing those type of handguns back in 2012." Z reminded. "Now it could have just been you who was clumsy enough one day and somehow dropped it on your own lawn, but nevertheless this is going to put us in a tight position once more now."

"I know Z I know…" Richard understood. "I promise you, I will get this under control, no suspicions."

"You better." Z said in a serious tone. "And I'm saying this as your boss, not your friend. If you don't get this under control, then I will. And I'm pretty sure you know what I mean by that."

Richard had trouble gulping. "Z… we've known each other for more than twenty years now, you'd seriously kill me over a small incident such as this?"

"It's not just this incident I've noticed your sloppiness happen Richard." Z informed. "You couldn't even do a simple job of taking out a sleeping tiger in the middle of the night. So when he kicked your gun away, you had to resort to using a knife on him. Now it's pretty ironic you use a knife to take out an enemy when you're working in one of the biggest illegal weapon manufacturing businesses in the world."

"Mistakes happen Z, just like _your_ mistake with three of our own mammals dying back at the Cliffside Asylum."

"And I learned from that experience Richard." Z said disagreeing. "As for you though, it doesn't seem like you've learned squat after all these years. Now get the hell out of my sights."

Richard shook his head as he was still mad at himself while walking towards the door.

"What a mess…" Z said to himself, as Richard had exited the room. He pressed a button on his phone to talk to his assistant out in the front.

" _Yes Z, is there something you need?"_ Z's assistant Britney asked.

"Yes there is in fact." Z replied "I know Frank and Chuck are free right now, so I want to see if you can ask them to go over to the ZPD so they could hear whatever they can about that tiny kafuffle with Richard right now."

 _"_ _I'll contact them right away sir."_

"Thank you Britney." Z said turning the transmission off, as he crossed his arms. "This was never something I wanted to come to Richard…" Z mumbled to himself. "But at the end of the day, business is business."

* * *

"Were not going to find anything more than before Lawliet." An officer said, as he and one other officer were looking through Clawhauser's apartment for any more clues to where he may have disappeared to.

"Don't look at me Chang, it was Bogo's orders for us to come and look around here." Lawliet replied.

"What would he expect us to find anyways?"

"Anything that could lead us to the right direction about Clawhauser's whereabouts." Lawliet replied. "We just need to keep looking through places he may want to hide something."

"Hide something?" Chang wondered. "Clawhauser hiding something? That to me sounds a little too farfetched. We've known Clawhauser for years now, does he look like the type of mammal that would want to keep secrets?"

"Well you got me on that one." Lawliet admitted. "But if it weren't for the fact that he's gone missing around the time two other gun related occurrences happened to the city, it would obviously seem a little suspicious to some, wouldn't you agree?"

"It seems reasonable yes." Chang answered. "But I still can't rap my head around this. I mean, Clawhauser of all mammals, a dispatch officer as well as a crazy donut and Gazelle lover? Don't you see the weirdness in it as well?"

"I sure do." Lawliet said agreeing. "Maybe Bogo saw the same thing and that's why he's having us look around here more."

"Maybe."

"Hey do you know if they ever took a look at Clawhauser's cell phone to see if he made any recent calls to anyone?"

"No actually and since you brought that up, I believe the first time they looked around this apartment, there was no sign of the cellphone either."

"Oh, well that sure seems like a step back then."

The bear and panda continued sniffing through the entire rest of the apartment, but after at least one hour of searching, they had come up empty handed still.

"There's nothing here Lawliet." Chang said. "Unless of course it seems we're not trying hard enough."

"Chang if we walk back to the ZPD with nothing on Bogo's table, you know how he's going to take it." Lawliet brought up. "You've seen what the streets have been like lately, and now even our own officers are getting mixed up in all of this. It must be up to his knees with the pressure that's been put up on him. If he doesn't get a lead on anything soon, then we're talking losing his job forever."

"Sounds to me like a small price to pay when you've got too many cold cases on your paws."

"You're telling me." Lawliet said, as he was examining Clawhauser's bed. "I don't know, I just don't see anything that's standing out around here-"

Just then, as officer Lawliet was looking under Clawhauser's bed cushion, he was immediately stunned with what he saw was under it.

"What, did you find something under the bed Lawliet?" Chang asked as he was walking over.

Lawliet then reached for the object under Clawhauser's bed and took it out.

Once Chang took a look at what Lawliet found, he was just as shocked as he was to see what he was holding in front of their own eyes.

"A-a handgun?" Chang asked silently.

"What in the hell…." Lawliet mumbled. "What is this doing under Clawhauser's bed?"

"Somebody must have put it under there then."

"Chang, why the heck would someone want to put a gun inside Clawhauser's apartment, especially around the time he went missing?"

Chang thought it was a pretty stupid assumption he had just made, but the fact they found a crucial piece of evidence regarding the weapons case found inside an officer's home felt like a really hard pill to swallow to the other two officers.

"Well then what the hell does this mean then?" Chang asked walking back and forth started to feel panicked.

Lawliet looked around the apartment once more to see if there was anything else possibly out of the ordinary. He knew if there was something like a gun Clawhauser was hiding in his room, it couldn't have been the only thing there that was hidden. As he was looking around, he had a hunch feeling about the clothes drawers.

"What is it?" Chang asked, as he was walking over to the drawers.

"I know this may sound crazy Chang, but I just want to check out his clothing for a second."

"Why would that sound crazy?"

"Well, do you remember that time back when we were at the Cliffside Asylum to ambush some of those weapon dealers?"

"Uh, yea?"

"They described two hooded figures jumping off the balcony that night." Lawliet stated. "Now from what I've heard around the ZPD, the two mammals that jumped off that same balcony also seem to match the same description of the mammals who are currently trading with whatever buyers are out there today."

"The mysterious five you mean?"

"Precisely."

"Okay, but what does any of that have to do with Clawhauser and a gun being found in his apartment?"

"What I'm trying to say is, maybe Clawhauser must have been a part of this group."

Chang was shocked after hearing the accusation coming from Lawliet. "What? You, you actually believe Clawhauser was a part of one of the biggest criminal organizations Zootopia has ever seen in all of its years?"

"There was a fricking gun found under his bed Chang, so to my calculations I'm pretty sure it's a safe assumption no matter how hard it is to be true."

"Then what is it with you talking now about the two mammals who escaped from the Cliffside Asylum incident?" Chang asked.

"The two mammals were thought to be a rabbit and a hippo." Lawliet replied. "However, that may not be entirely true since Clawhauser is known to nearly everyone who knows him that he is definitely more overweight than the average cheetah."

Chang began to understand where Lawliet may have been going with the conversation. "Hold on, you're not implying that Clawhauser was one of the…."

"I can't be positive about it, but it's a very, very slight possibility Chang." Lawliet answered, as he was going through the drawers of Clawhauser's clothing. "But just to be sure about it, I'm checking to see if I can find something that may lead to the clothing that was-"

Lawliet paused himself as he discovered a certain dark hoodies he spotted inside the pile of clothes.

"That was what Lawliet?" Chang asked.

"That was worn that night…" Lawliet replied, as he pulled out the dark hoodie showing it to Chang.

"What kind of a hoodie is this?" Chang asked. "I don't ever recall Clawhauser bringing a hoodie such as this to the ZPD."

"Yea but worst of all, look at the drawing picture on the top of it." Lawliet said pointing at the microphone drawing on the hoodie. "Do you remember when we brought in that, well now deceased surviving tiger bodyguard after the shootout happened?" He asked, as Chang nodded in return. "Well he said the two mammals had drawings put on the face part of their hoodies. The small ones was a carrot, and the big ones was a microphone."

Chang's eyes widened. "S-so you're saying that one of the mysterious fives members was…."

Lawliet nodded lightly. "Clawhauser."

* * *

Nick eventually finished his shift on the ZPD and walked back home. There have been some bizarre things which have come into place very recently, mostly because of him and Judy's actions on putting the gun out onto Richard's lawn. Nevertheless, he knew this still wasn't enough to put Z and his business out of the picture, but at least it was a good start for him and the rest of his friends.

When he opened the door to his apartment, he could already see Amber walking about around the house.

 _"_ _Does this vixen ever have any precautions about getting spotted, or does she just know it'll never happen?"_ Nick thought.

"Evening Amber." Nick said putting his belongings on the counter.

"Oh hey Nick." Amber said, as she was setting up some silverware on the kitchen table with what seemed to be her cooking something on the stove.

Nick started to smell what she was cooking. "What are you making there?"

"Oh just some chili I found in one of your cupboards." Amber replied. "But actually, there was something I wanted to show you." She said, as she was walking over to the couch to grab what she wanted to show Nick. "Catch!"

Amber then threw the object in the air over to Nick. Once Nick caught it, he realized the object in his paws was an unpinned grenade.

"HOLY!" Nick shouted, as he dropped the grenade and was running over to the couch ducking for cover assuming the grenade was about to go off. However, after a few moments, nothing happened. And before he knew it, he could hear continuous laughter coming from the background by Amber.

"Gotcha!" Amber shouted.

"What the…" Nick murmured, as he went over to the grenade to see why it didn't go off. But when he picked it up once more to take a closer look at it, he realized it was a lot lighter than a typical grenade would be, almost as if it was nothing but plastic. "Oh come Amber, really?! You threw a toy grenade at me? What kind of a joke was that even supposed to be, I nearly ended up jumping out of the window because of that!"

"But you didn't." Amber replied still smirking. Amber saw Nick shaking his head and throwing the toy grenade away from his sights. "Aw come on Nick don't act so grumpy about it, you know I was just trying to get a good laugh out of you!"

"Yea well if you haven't noticed lately Amber, I haven't been all that into laughs and giggles." Nick said, still angered at what Amber pulled on him. "Now just, please don't do that again. And where did you find that thing anyways?"

 _"_ I went out back to get some fresh air and saw it at a nearby dumpster, I figured it would be at least a bit of fun to mess with you using it." Amber replied. "But come on Nick, at the end of the day you have to admit that was pretty funny."

Nick put his paw on his head trying to forget what had just happened as he thought it was now the stupidest thing Amber had pulled on him yet so far.

"I'm just going to have a quick shower now if you need me." Nick informed. "And if you even _think_ about doing another one of your silly pranks on me again while I'm in there, you're going to get more than just a howl out of me." He said walking into his room and closing the door.

"Jeez, sounds like Mr. crabby pants is back." Amber mumbled to herself, as she walked over to the couch and turned on the TV. "But seriously, can't that guy ever take a joke when he's told one?"

 _"_ _I guess I might as well give up on understanding the mind of a vixen, because obviously my assumptions of them had just been proven wrong."_ Nick thought, as he was still annoyed by Amber.

As Nick was undressing from his police uniform, he started to hear his phone vibrating on the bed. When he picked it up to see who it was, he was a little surprised to see it was Judy calling at this time. But no matter the occasion, he still answered her.

"Carrots?" Nick said to Judy on the phone.

 _"_ _Nick, did you hear about what officers Lawliet and Chang brought back from searching through Clawhauser's apartment?"_ Judy asked.

"Not that I know of ever since I left."

" _Well I only left a few minutes ago, and from what I saw them bring in inside the evidence box for Clawhauser's case, I think they might be onto him."_

"Onto him how?"

 _"_ _Like onto him as in they think he was a part of the mysterious five onto him."_

Nick was surprised after hearing what Judy had just informed to him. "What? No, no that's not possible what could they have possibly found in Clawhauser's apartment that could lead them to that assumption?"

 _"_ _A gun under his bed, as well as the hoodie he used for all the weapon trades we did."_

"Oh, yea I guess that would do it." Nick said feeling stupid. "So now what do we do then? If they can figure out who one of the mysterious five members were then how do the rest of us know they won't eventually figure out it _is_ us?"

 _"_ _I never said they wouldn't."_ Judy replied. _"But frankly I'm surprised at Z for not sending a few of his mammals over to pick that stuff up so there wouldn't be any evidence left."_

"He seemed frustrated that night, of course he would've made a mistake _somewhere_ when not thinking it through." Nick assumed. "But Judy, I know you have Z's profile somewhere in your room right?"

" _Uh yea, why?"_

"Did you ever see any other information about him which may ever cause him to slip up like this?"

 _"_ _Um, I doubt it but I guess I can read it to you and see what it says about him if you want."_

"Sure, we could go with that alternative."

Nick waited for a few moments to hear what the profile about Z would say about him, but after a few more moments Nick started to find it suspicious it was taking so long just to pull one file out.

"Carrots, what's the hold up?"

 _"_ _N-Nick…"_ Judy said hesitating. _"Did you happen to take a few of the files with you the last time you came to my apartment?"_

Nick didn't understand where this was coming from. "No… why?"

 _"_ _They're gone."_

"Gone?" Nick said shocked. "What do you mean they're gone?"

 _"_ _I mean the files are gone Nick!"_ Judy shouted back _. "I looked in the box I keep the files in, but when I opened it, it was empty!"_

"That's not possible though, they were in your apartment the whole time!"

 _"_ _I thought that to until now!"_ Judy continued to shout in panic. _"I'm the only one who has the key to my apartment room and it's with me right now."_

"Well then who else could have taken the files?!"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 31, Nobody Is Safe**


	32. Nobody Is Safe

**Chapter 31: Nobody Is Safe**

June 8th, 2017, one week later

"Zoe, when you're finished with your soup please don't forget to put your plate in the dishwasher." Zoe's mother Francine said, as she was finishing up cleaning the rest of the dirty dishes.

"Yea, yea I know mom." Zoe replied grumpily.

"Don't give me that attitude young lady." Francine ordered.

"Mom, I'm seventeen years old now, don't you think I know the routines I need to be doing after I'm finished eating my dinner by now?"

"Well I'd expect you to have done it by now."

Zoe thought her mom was just being too paranoid for some reason. "It's what I'm about to do."

Francine sighed. "Look sweetie, just finish putting your dishes away and go to your room, mom needs some alone time right now."

Zoe seemed a little concerned now. "Why, is everything alright?"

"Everything's fine honey, I just need some time to think about a few things that's all."

Zoe decided to shrug it off. "Whatever you say then." She said, as she put away her dishes and walked out of the kitchen."

Once Francine finished putting away all the dishes, she decided to sit down by the kitchen table for a moment. While she was sitting there, she was reflecting on everything that had happened with her and _him_ in the past. Sometimes she wishes she had never met him, other times she is just confused on whether she can ever live with a mammal like him ever again.

 _"_ _June 8_ _th_ _…"_ Francine thought. _"The day I met Zamiel."_

* * *

June 8th, 1996

Francine's life if anyone asked her about it, she would say it's normal, and nothing else. She had already gone through the typical good stuff in life others would want; Have a good childhood with loving parents, make great friends, pass in school, and all in all live a happy life. But that wasn't the totally truthful Francine talking, that was the Francine who wished she had never wanted to go for a drink that night in the bar talking.

It was night time and Francine was already finished with her internship job for a very well-known business. But after all that hard working, and non-stop coffee bringing to other big cheese mammals the entire week, she knew she could use a drink.

She had gotten into one of the large bars in the middle of downtown of Zootopia and was surprised to see how many mammals there really were around to be drinking at this hour.

 _"_ _Yeesh, I wouldn't be surprised if most mammals only went here to find a guy or girl themselves."_ Francine thought, as she was looking around while heading towards the bar table.

As she took a seat, one of the bartenders went over to her. "Hey lady, what can I do you for this evening?" The bear bartender asked.

"I'll take a margarita for myself thanks." Francine replied.

"One margarita coming up."

As she was waiting for her drink while watching whatever sort of sports that was on the TV currently, she saw another zebra come in and sit beside her.

"What can I get you tonight sir?" The bartender asked the Zebra.

"A bottle of Moosehead please." The zebra replied.

"Moosehead's coming your way sir."

While Francine was continuing to watch the game, she couldn't help but notice the zebra beside her with a gloomy attitude he seemed to be feeling.

"Rough night for yourself?" Francine asked the zebra.

The zebra turned his head towards Francine. "Who me?" He asked pointing to himself, as Francine nodded in return. "Heh, oh well you know the same old same old with money."

"Oh, so money troubles?" Francine asked. "Trust me, I've been there a few times after I moved out of my parents place."

"No, no, not that sort of money troubles." The zebra corrected. "You see I'm an accountant. And let me tell you, being one sure has its moments when you run into a snag on financial records with a rich mammal."

"Oh, so was it one of those 'getting the boot' sort of scenarios for yourself?"

"Figuratively no thank god, but realistically yes." The zebra replied, as both of them were laughing from the comment.

"Yea, I know exactly what you mean big boy." Francine said. "When you get coffee spilled on one of your bosses paperwork by accident, that pretty much loses your chance of getting anywhere higher in _that_ business industry."

"Sounds like we have something in common then." The zebra said chuckling.

Francine smiled. "Francine Cavlington." She said introducing herself.

"Zamiel Stripes." The zebra said in return, as both of them shook each other's hoof.

"Now you sir definitely do dress fancy enough to go up there into the high rankings, is that your goal one day?"

Zamiel shrugged. "More or less."

"Alright, here we are madam with your Margarita, and here you are sir with your Moosehead beer." The bartender said placing the drinks on the table.

"This ones on me." Zamiel said to the bartender, as he placed the money on the table for both him and Francine.

"Well now, such a gentlemammal." Francine said, as she was thankful for the free drink from Zamiel.

"Yea well, I sure do drink like one." Zamiel said laughing at himself. "But you though with a Margarita? You seem like one of the party girl types."

"Oh ho yea, that I sure can be at time." Francine replied. "Cheers, to meeting a new friendly face."

"And a gorgeous one at that." Zamiel replied winking, as Francine blushed a little.

"Oh you tease."

* * *

 _"_ _Yea, friendly face…"_ Francine thought, still remembering the moments with her and Zamiel. _"That friendly face he had on him was nothing but a mask to what he was really like behind it. I still can't believe after all those years we went out together, only after we had Zoe did he tell me about what he was really like, and what else he did for a living."_

Just then, Francine heard the front door open. The sound of the door opening caught her attention because she knew Zoe was already upstairs and would not have been able to open it. She then got up from her seat and slowly walked over to the front door.

When she looked over to the front door, sure enough the door was already open. "Zoe?" Francine called out.

 _"_ _Yea?"_ Zoe shouted back from her room.

"Did you open the door and not close it before going into your room?"

 _"_ _No, I never went near the door I just went straight upstairs, why?"_

Francine must have figured it was probably just a windy day today and the door blew open while it was unlocked. She then went over to the door to close it, and this time locked it.

"Never mind sweetie, probably just my imagination."

But when Francine began walking away from the door, she realized something. _"Wait a minute, didn't I lock the door when I came back from getting the mail just before dinner?"_ She thought.

But before she could think about it any further, the answer had just been given to her as she heard a click behind herself.

 **"** **Turn around."** The hooded mammal ordered.

Francine did what the mammal said and slowly turned around towards them. "W-who are you, what do you want?"

 **"** **That's not your concern."** The mammal replied. **"But here's what you should be concerned about. If you don't come with me right now, I will put a bullet in the back of your skull, and then to your daughter's. But do not worry, I'm just here for you, not for her understand?"**

Francine hesitated to reply, but eventually nodded with her back still facing the hooded mammal.

 **"** **Good."** The mammal said. **"Now then where were we? Oh yes, you're coming with me."**

* * *

June 9th, 2017, the next day

"How much do you think they've figured out about Clawhauser by now?" Nick asked, as he and Judy were walking into the ZPD.

"Only that he is, or was a part of the mysterious five as far as I can tell." Judy replied. "Still, that doesn't mean it's a good thing. But what about Danny and Finnick, have they made sure nothings been leaked out to anyone about their status as well?"

"Not as far as I can tell the last time I spoke with them." Nick answered. "But I wouldn't say that's the problem right now. The problem with us at least right now is they _know_ what we look like, and they _know_ there's still four of us to find out there somewhere."

"True, but the one thing they haven't found out yet and we need to make sure they don't for the time being is who."

"Yea well, it won't be easy on us to keep it a secret anymore."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well think about it Judy, Clawhauser was a part of the ZPD." Nick replied. "It's like saying your best friend turned out to be evil. Someone who turned out to be working for the gun group also turns out to be in the ZPD too, it definitely would set off more than a few mammals in here, and throughout the city."

"Yea not to mention everyone still thinks he's _only_ missing." Judy said. "I hate doing all of this."

"Took you that long to say it, huh?"

"No, just never occurred to me to ever say it out loud before." Judy replied. "Nevertheless, I believe the quote goes something like, 'when there's a beginning, there's always an end'."

"Only problem is we've never been able to find that end yet."

"Time can be a wondrous thing Can't it Nick?"

Nick shrugged it off knowing the conversation wasn't going anywhere. "So hey, I've been meaning to ask you about those missing files of yours from a bit more than a week back."

"I knew you'd still be asking me about that." Judy said crossing her arms. "Nick, I can't put heads or tails on it without a clue of any sort. I don't recall leaving it anywhere besides any place in my room, and both the window and door were closed and locked. Whoever took those files obviously didn't want me to know who they were, or how they got in."

"See that's the thing that's bugging me about what you're telling me carrots." Nick brought up. "Why would anyone not want you to know how they could've gotten in?"

"I don't know, could be because if I knew they'd begin to assume or make a connection between them." Judy answered. "But Nick if you want to talk to me about questions, talk to me about why someone would even search my apartment for those files in the first place. I mean, how could anyone other than you and me have known about the files I keep in my room?"

Nick shrugged. "I don't know, educated guess maybe?"

"Off of what?"

Nick thought about it for a moment, but eventually came to realize there was nothing he could think of. "Okay you got me on that one." He admitted.

Judy rolled her eyes as she and Nick continued walking to the bullpen for their morning announcements and assignments. To no surprise, there was still lots of talk going around the bullpen about the situation with Clawhauser and what Chang and Lawliet had found in his apartment.

"Wow, if I were Z I'd be banging my head against the wall hard multiple times for having made an error such as this one after that night." Judy whispered to Nick, as both of them were climbing back up onto the chair they would typically stand on up front.

A few moments later, Bogo came out from his office and onto the table stand as he usually would.

"Alright, alright, you can hold your chit-chats for later!" Bogo shouted, as the rest of the room became silent. "So, as you all may know by now officer Clawhauser is still deemed as a missing mammal and nothing more. However, from what we have recently come across inside his apartment, we'll now be having more reasons to find him now for more than just his well-being."

 _"_ _Yep, here he comes again with the evidence on him."_ Judy thought. _"I still don't see the point in overhearing stuff we already know about. Maybe he's still just trying to adjust in how he feels about one of his own officers having done something like this."_

"Seeing as how we have come across a gun inside his apartment, as well as a hoodie with a strong resemblance to the street group of gun dealers known as the mysterious five, myself and a few other officers have begun to come up with a few of our own theories."

 _"_ _Own theories?"_ Nick thought still curious as to what Bogo meant by that.

"August 14th, 2016." Bogo said. "The day Clawhauser was attacked by two known workers of the weapons group. Clawhauser seemed to have been walking normally inside one of the parks, but we believe the motive for the attack on him was not just out of random cause. If Clawhauser is what we suspect he is, that he has been working for this criminal organization of guns then the fact he was attacked by mammals with guns cannot just be pure coincidental. Not to mention his own sister went missing about a week or more after those events that had taken place."

 _"_ _It wasn't, Z sent some of his guys to attack him because he assumed Clawhauser was becoming too much of an annoyance to them."_ Nick thought. _"But as for those two, it seems like they weren't able to do the job right."_

"Something on that day triggered the mammals behind the curtain to attempt to assassinate him." Bogo continued. "If we can find out what, then we'll be a step closer to solving everything else in this case, including the possible locations of the rest of the missing mammal cases we've had to deal with over the course of time."

 _"_ _Is there any leads as to what may have caused the incident there?"_ An officer called out.

"Not one." Bogo admitted. "However, it does not mean this is something to cast aside as it is. Then again, what I'm saying to you all is just a theory so just keep that in mind if any of you ever see something come up."

Some of the officers didn't seem to be too encouraged when Bogo said there was nothing to go on with the theory, but with leads on anything with the guns case running thin every day, they all thought it was better than nothing.

"Secondly and well, I'm pointing out the obvious here but Clawhauser was a part of the ZPD." Bogo stated. "An officer of the law, who also worked for a criminal organization. Now I don't typically like to be pointing any paws at my own officers as you're all like a big unstable family to me." He said, as some of the officers chuckled a little. "But under the circumstances that have been brought upon now, I want you all to keep a close eye on your partners for the time being. We are all under the oath of the badges that are currently on us proudly right now. Clawhauser had one too, but he seems to have lied under the oath he was given as well, and has to gone missing."

 _"_ _Come on Bogo, why do you have to make things harder on me, now of all times?"_ Judy thought. _"I'd give my right paw if it meant sticking to the oath I took when I became an officer, but I did so, my father would…."_

"Now then, if you have any clarification about what I just spoke about or volunteering to investigate more into these theories and have a thought in mind for it, then please speak to me in my office because I have already wasted enough time discussing this matter to you all." Bogo explained. "Alright, as usual when I call your names come and get your assignment from me."

Nick and Judy eventually got their assignment for some more patrolling to be done in downtown, as more speed racers have been sighted more frequently around there. But the assignment wasn't what they had on their mind right now. It was almost a relief that their names weren't brought up during the announcements with Bogo. But more or less, they decided not to think about that so they wouldn't jinx themselves like the previous times.

"He sounded calmer than I expected." Judy said to Nick, as she him were walking out of the bullpen and to their cruiser.

"He sounded just the way I would expect him to, to be frank." Nick said. "It's obvious to us and other officers he's stressed as a train breakdown right now, but he doesn't seem to want to show it, at least in front of all the other officers."

"Mmhm." Judy said nodding. "I heard about what happened to that tiger I saw when I was in the Cliffside Asylum. I suppose he's having his own doubts on keeping this case together so he could finally have a peaceful sleep at night. But with your evidence fleeing right before your very eyes, you could go to drastic measures if _you_ think it's necessary for the city."

"Which is why every day now I wake up and am reminded of the tragic events happening to the city because of us." Nick said. "And when I continuously here about it, I'd always ask myself how it ever all got to this."

"I'd like to bet you're not the only one thinking that right now."

Nick shrugged. "Probably."

"But enough of the depression thoughts, what do you say we clear our mind by going patrolling for a few of those speed racers, huh?" Judy asked with an encouraging smile on her face.

Nick smiled back. "It would make my day carrots."

"You want to bet we'll catch another sloth like last time?"

Nick thought about it. "Sure, I'd take that bet."

* * *

"Is there anything else you think they may be able to figure out about mom right now?" Danny asked, as he was on the phone with his brother Matthew, also known to Judy and Nick as Officer Wolford.

 _"_ _Still nothing on her yet little brother."_ Matthew replied. _"The only think we ever discussed today at the bullpen was some theories based off of what we discovered in his apartment."_

"You're referring to the gun and hoodie you mentioned before that matched the same description as some things the mysterious five would use right?"

 _"_ _Uh huh."_ Matthew replied. _"The leads on the whereabouts of the five mammals including our mother that went missing last September have been leading us to a dead end. I even went over to her and dad's place, but it was almost as if she willingly left as there wasn't even a sign of struggle anywhere when I last saw. Look Danny I get you're worried about mom in fact I'm glad you're actually starting to take interest in it now, but the fact is there's no other evidence left for us to move forward on."_

"You know, I was planning on visiting dad again to see how things were holding up for him ever since mom disappeared but…" Danny said hesitating. "But what the hell am I supposed to tell him? I'm never good with awkward situations such as those, I always end up making the circumstances worse for the mammal!"

 _"_ _Oh you can't be that bad at it, don't be such a wuss Danny."_ Matthew argued. _"Just give the typical encouraging words to him like saying you're here for him, or that you're not alone in all of this, or even just saying the words I love you to him. Trust me right now in his state, those are the words he'd definitely want to hear right now which would cheer him up a hundred times better than the condition he's in right now."_

"Well I'll do the best I can with that sort of drift you're seeming to flow at me."

 _"_ _That a boy."_ Matthew said happily knowing that Danny was going to take his advice. _"Anyways I got to get back to work on a few files over so I'll talk to you later, okay bro?"_

"Sure thing." Danny replied, as he hung up the phone.

Danny then laid back down on his bed exhaling deeply while looking straight up at the ceiling. Danny may have felt like a guy that never wanted to get into any bad situations for himself in the past ever since that incident he regretted ever happening, but as the days have gone by nothing has felt any better for him. After seeing a second mammal fall to the ground dead a couple months back, it made him wonder if he would ever get his mother out of that cell.

Danny thought for himself keeping a secret to someone was one thing. But keeping a secret from your family about another family member of his was a whole other story. So instead of being asked by his officer brother Matthew Wolford about his thoughts on his mother's disappearance, he thought the best way to blend in without thinking about coughing up the truth was pretending like you didn't know a thing either. Thankfully for Danny that strategy of his has been working out quite well for him, as Matthew's suspicions on him at first have gone away over time.

After another moment or two of reflection while continuing to stare at the ceiling, he jumped back into reality as he started hearing his cell phone buzz on his night table.

He picked it up and took a look at the name to see who was phoning. "Oh, it's Finnick." Danny mumbled, as he answered the phone. "Yo Finnick, what's up?"

 _"_ _Danny I need you to listen to me for a second."_ Finnick requested. _"Do you remember that conversation I had with you a few days ago about dealing with the Z problem?"_

Danny thought about it for a moment before remembering. "Oh yea, I remember that talk we had had about him, but it sounded more like a roast than an actual plan really." Danny said laughing a little.

 _"_ _I wasn't joking you know."_

Danny's funny attitude immediately went to serious attitude after hearing what Finnick said. "Hold on a second, you were actually _serious_ about that talk?"

 _"_ _What gave you the assumption that I wasn't?"_

"W-what do you think gave me it the assumption Finnick?" Danny replied. "It's an insane idea! If you're actually planning on doing what I think you're doing, don't. That is only going to make matters worse and you know it!"

 _"_ _It's too late Danny, I've already done it."_

Danny's ears perked up stunned. "O-okay so are you saying you actually have-"

 _"_ _Yes Danny."_ Finnick replied interrupting him. _"I've already decided to move my plans for this ahead of schedule. That zebra can mess with a lot of things, but learning his crew actually blew my mother's brains out and not telling the truth about it is where they've crossed the line."_

"Finnick, do NOT do this." Danny pleaded. "If you reverse what you just did right now, then maybe just _maybe_ you will come out alive from this! Because if you don't, Z is going to _slaughter_ you!"

 _"_ _I don't care anymore Danny."_ Finnick said. _"They killed my mother, the only family in the world I have left and if that zebra thinks I'm just going to let it slide, then he obviously has no idea what kind of an animal I can be!"_

"Finnick for the love of god, listen to yourself!" Danny shouted. "Everything your saying right now is going to get you killed! If you die after all of this, then what would others have to say about you?"

There was silence on the other end for a moment before Finnick responded " _Tell them I tried doing the city a favour."_ He said, as he hung up the phone.

 _"_ _This is bad…_ " Danny thought. _"This is really bad…"_

* * *

Later than night

Judy sooner or later finished her shift at the ZPD with Nick and took the subway back home. She and Nick were able to catch at least one speeding driver at the end of the day so overall, she would consider it an accomplishment.

Judy put some of her belongings and undressed from her police uniform, and she changed into her pajamas for the night. As a rabbit, Judy did have some skills of finishing up most of her paperwork faster before the day ended unlike most of the other officers at the ZPD, so she thought about what to do for the rest of the night.

She would have continued to look through the files of Z and a handful of his crew, but because the files were stolen she knew there was no way that was happening anytime soon. She would've made more copies of the files if she wanted to, but if whoever took the files was able to find them, then for the time being she thought it would be safer not to make any more until she's sure no one else could find them. The main thing she was thankful for with whoever stole her files, was that at least they didn't take the money she took from the Cliffside Asylum that was in the same box as the files were.

 _"_ _Odd how someone would be interested in the files but not the money inside it as well…"_ Judy thought. _"You know what, maybe I can just listen to whatever's on the radio to cool my mind a bit."_

As she was going through a few of the stations, she was trying to find one that would interest her.

 _"_ _This is J, J, Splataaayyyy here to bring you the satisfaction you need on station 11.4 with the greatest and wackiest hits of music you'll ever hear this year!"_ The animal on the radio said. _"Up first, we got spray paintin fiasco made by the Doe-"_

"Too tired for hearing something energetic." Judy mumbled to herself, as she continued to browse through the stations.

 _"_ _Are you tired of getting your trunk stuck inside the toilet every time it gets clogged?"_ The animal on the radio said. _"Then introducing trunk inc's latest invention, the trunk unclogger!"_

"Sounds like a station more fit for elephants than rabbits, unless somehow our ears got stuck in it." Judy continued to mumble, as she still tried to find something good on.

 _"_ _But onto serious matters here, how about we talk about that weapons sort of case we've all been hearing about Huh Fitz?"_ An animal on the radio asked.

 _"_ _It…. Definitely…. Is…. Very…. Bad…"_ The sloth replied.

 _"_ _Yea I'll say honey."_ The female mammal said. _"Nothing but cold-blooded murders, unexplained attacks, and missing mammals everywhere in Zootopia lately. We've been getting problem after problem now none of us can't ever stop thinkin about it! I mean first we got some sort of a crazy assistant mayor sheep lady tryin to do crazy voodoo poison they call a nighthowler, and now some sorta group causin violence with weapons that have been illegal here ever since this place was built! Now I don't know what in the name of Sam Hill the animals at the ZPD are doin, but it sure don't look like any files on the section of completed cases coming up anytime soon I'll bet ya!"_

"Please, if animals like her actually knew what we were dealing with here and that it's not just your every gang off the streets, I'm sure she'd be cutting the sassy charade the minute she figures it out." Judy assumed. "Okay, come on find something that's actually normal."

 _"_ _Have you been tired of pick lockers pick locking to find all of your most prized posessions?"_ The animal talking in the commercial asked. _"Then introducing the unbreakable locks of the future, the unlockable 2000!"_

Judy chuckled. "Wouldn't take pick lockers too long to figure out a skill to unlock those most likely."

After thinking about the commercial a bit longer, Judy realized something from the commercial she just heard. "Pick lockers…" She said thinking about it. She gasped as she realized the answer she was looking for all along. "Pick lockers!" She shouted.

Judy then jumped back onto her bed where she left her phone and began to dial Nick's number as fast as she could. The seconds she was waiting for Nick to pick up had felt like minutes to her with her hopes of Nick answering the phone.

Just then she heard a voice on the phone. _"Carrots, what is it?"_

"Nick, where is Finnick right now?" Judy asked.

 _"_ _Finnick?"_ Nick wondered _"He's probably chilling at his apartment right now like any animal would in the city, why?"_

"The only kind of mammal I know that could be able to get into my apartment room without a key is a pick locker." Judy replied. "Wasn't it Finnick who offered to pick lock the glass back when you, him and Danny had to steal that transcription disc for Drew Hoble before the Cliffside Asylum incident happened?"

 _"_ _Woah, woah, woah, hold your horses there carrots."_ Nick said. _"Look, I can believe you about it being a pick locker, but that literally has nothing to do with suspecting Finnick. If Finnick were the only mammal in Zootopia who knew how to pick a lock, he'd probably be the most well-known thief of all time, which he definitely will never be."_

Judy exhaled deeply in frustration. "Nick, now's not the time to be thinking about the specifics okay? Now can you just call Finnick right now to make sure he stole those files?"

 _"_ _You're saying it like you believe he actually stole them still Judy!"_ Nick argued. _"What makes you so sure it's him?"_

"Look, I can tell you another time okay, but right now I just need you to-"

 _"_ _No Judy, what makes you so sure it was him who took it-"_

"I stole about 40k from the night myself and Clawhauser escaped from that Cliffside Asylum okay, that was the secret Z figured out about me the night he asked us about it inside the Bermelia building!" Judy confessed. "If it were Z's mammals that came in here, then they would have taken the files _and_ the money with them, but they instead only took the files! And the only other mammal I can think of that has decent enough pick locking techniques to lock and unlock my door is Finnick, and he's one of the only mammals that knows who those mammals are on the profiles!"

 _"_ _You did what?"_ Nick asked silently.

"Nick, now's not the time for that, I just need you to call Finnick right now." Judy requested. "Whatever he's planning to do with looking at those files, it could even mean to the point that nobody is safe enough if he's planning to do something drastic."

 _"_ _YOU DID WHAT?!"_ Nick shouted.

"Nick please, I just need you to call him!"

But before she knew it, she heard the beeping sound on the phone meaning that Nick had already hung up. Without thinking, Judy threw her phone against the wall in frustration while hearing the screen crack on it. While making sure she didn't let it out on another mammal, she walked over to her wall and kicked it as hard as she could still aggravated. Sooner or later she got tired of it and fell to her knees.

 _"_ _I need to stop this however way I can."_ Judy thought. _"Because if I don't, someone's going to die…. I don't want any more mammals to die."_ She said with her ears down, as a tear dropped from her eye.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 32, Now Or Never**


	33. Now Or Never

**Chapter 32: Now Or Never**

Things still seemed unsatisfying for Richard Panniston over the past week. All he could ever think about was how a gun of his own ended up in the front of his lawn for any animal to see, as well as how to take care of the police issue he had been trying to deal with.

"Okay Richard, think…" Richard told himself. "That night I was taking care of a few of the usual things for Z, then I drove back home. But I still never recall dropping or even feeling the weapon slip out of the back of my pants on my lawn, not to mention I don't even recall walking on my lawn in the first place!"

Richard continued to walk back and for in the living room still having trouble deciphering the mystery as to how the gun got on his lawn. However, any thought that came to his mind, he either thought it was impossible to have done, or he was simply in denial about it.

"Wait, what if someone purposely…"

"KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."

Richard began to hear some loud knocking coming from his front door. "Who the hell could that be at this time?" Richard murmured to himself.

When he looked through the hole on the door to see who it was, he was confused when he saw nobody in sight. He then unlocked the door and opened in looking around to see if anyone was there, but then he looked downward and saw a hooded mammal in front of him. It didn't actually take him too long to figure out who the mammal was as he had recognized the drawing picture on the face of the hoodie.

"What do you think you're doing here pipsqueak?" Richard asked the mammal, but with no reply. "And how did you know where to find me, did Z tell you or something? I swear if you don't give me a good reason right now, I'll get one of my own guns and put a bullet right in your-"

"BANG!"

Richard then fell to the ground as the hooded mammal had instantly taken out his handgun and shot him straight in the head. The hooded mammal made sure no one was around, or still awake to have heard the shot as they went inside the house while closing the door.

The mammal then walked over Richards's body and looked for something to write with. He went into the kitchen, grabbed a pencil and sticky note and began to write on it. After he finished writing what he wanted to write on it, he walked over to Richard's body and placed the sticky note on him for a certain mammal to find. They then walked over to Richard's home phone and began dialing a number.

A moment or more later, someone on the other end answered the phone. _"You've reached Z's assistant, would you like me to leave him a message for you Mr. Panniston?"_

 **"** **Yes I would actually."** The mammal replied. **"Tell him Mr. Panniston will no longer be available to work for him anymore."**

There was silence on the other end of the line. _"I'm sorry, is this Mr. Panniston I'm speaking to right now?"_ Z's assistant asked. _"If not, then who am I currently speaking with?"_

 **"** **I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, at least by the time you guys get here to find him."** The mammal answered.

 _"_ _I-I'm sorry, but I don't seem to understand what you mean by us getting-"_

Without any hesitation, the hooded mammal hung up the phone. _"That should do it enough for Z to get some of his mammals down over here soon."_ The mammal thought. _"I really hope I don't have to do the same thing to her if Z doesn't do what I'm requesting of him to do."_

The mammal then walked back to the door while making sure they didn't trip over Richard's body in the process. He made sure the coast was clear before slowly closing the door and walking away.

* * *

June 10th, 2017, the next day

Judy wasn't quite sure about whether she should go to work or not today. She still didn't know what to say to Nick after having said those things to him last night. She was angry with him, and he was angry with her. But even though it wasn't going to be a pleasant day with Nick, she decided it was better than not going at all.

By the time she had gotten to the ZPD, she was surprised to see Nick who seemed to have been waiting for her by the entrance door. Whatever the reason he was there, she assumed she wasn't going to like it.

"Mind if I have a quick word with you Judy?" Nick asked with his arms crossed while leaning against the wall.

Judy shook her head after realizing it _was_ something she wasn't going to like. "I believe that sounds reasonable enough." She replied.

The two then walked over to a nearby part of the ZPD building where there weren't any mammals nearby, or at least close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Okay Nick, just say what you need to say and get it all out." Judy said wanting to get the hard part over with.

"Oh you want me to get it out, is that what you want?" Nick said rhetorically. "Fine, first of all you can explain what in the holy mammals of hell you were thinking by assuming it was okay to steal forty-thousand dollarz from a briefcase full of money you were supposed to give every penny of to Z?"

"I was panicking around then Nick, and I still am now!" Judy replied. "If we ever got into such a large enough snag we couldn't get out of regarding Z, I'm not going to wait for that bomb to go off. That money was a precaution if just in case myself, or possibly you, Finnick and Danny need to go anywhere for the time being to stay alive."

"Judy, has it ever occurred to you that if you assume that sort of 'bomb' you're thinking of in regards to Z ever actually does go off, then it would be the best time to talk with the ZPD about it?"

"I know I'm going to hate myself for a while when I say this, but the ZPD hasn't been very protective of anyone lately." Judy replied. "Just look at that Tiger bodyguard from the Cliffside Asylum for example. He was in witness protection, and which by definition no one could've been able to find him. But guess what? Z did. And let me tell you, if Z and his crew were able to pull off something like that, then I doubt there should be a problem for him in killing me _while_ I'm in the ZPD itself."

"It still doesn't mean you had to have kept it a secret!" Nick shouted. "What does the term friendship mean to you anyways Judy? Is it to you just a term where you meet someone, hang out with them, and then just hang out with them again some other time? Or do you still actually believe it's about a mammal who cares and is there for you when you need it?"

"Everyone has secrets they choose not to share Nick, _everyone_." Judy replied. "I didn't want to tell you about it because I didn't want you to get tangled up in all that danger in the first place! I can tell already you, Finnick and Danny have had it hard. You lost your mother, and you need to deal with a vixen who's practically living in your apartment as we speak to make sure the public doesn't see a hair of her or you'll probably have more blood on your paws if that happens."

"Tch." Nick said shaking his head at the remarks Judy was throwing at him.

"Yea well then you got Finnick who has also lost his mother, and has most likely gone AWOL from Z and his crew planning god knows what against his crew." Judy continued. "And then there's Danny. That guy I'm telling you is going to break loose from his chain one day."

"Oh why, because he's a wolf and that's just what wolves would do under severe pressure?"

"No, that has literally nothing to do with it, jeez you're starting to sound like Bellwether all over again!"

"Yea well at least I don't make certain decisions that could put others in danger like Bellwether did too."

Judy wasn't in the mood to bark back a Nick, so she just went back to the conversation both of them wanted to have before things began to get nasty again.

"All I'm saying about Danny, Nick is that he seems to have been put under a lot of pressure from all of this ever since he got into this with us." Judy said. "And if Finnick actually is going to do something beyond our repair, then I wouldn't want him to do the same."

"Judy, of all the mammals you would need to look out for right now, Danny definitely shouldn't be one of them." Nick said. "I've heard about how close his brother officer Wolford has kept an eye on him lately, and if he's ever in a snag like the one he was in when we went to confront Z that night, well then he should know who to turn to now. Sure as heck can't be Clawhauser anymore, or even telling his brother anything about it for that matter."

"Well then if you would prefer someone else you and I should look after, then who would it be?"

"Well the way certain events seemed to have turned out, I'd say we need to keep an eye on Bogo."

"Bogo?" Judy asked surprised. "Since when did Bogo's name ever get thrown around in all of this?"

"Since the very beginning Judy." Nick replied. "As of now, he seems to be making new leads on this weapons case, and I mean more than Z would expect the ZPD to. If Bogo gets too deep in the sand on Z's standards then… Well you get the picture."

"So then what are we supposed to do, tamper with the cases?" Judy asked. "I thought we were supposed to be keeping the ZPD on the _right_ track, not on the opposite of it!"

"No way if we tampered with the cases, things would only get worse." Nick replied. "And by worse, I mean him taking a bigger toll to the city than either of us could imagine."

Judy sighed. "Nick, did you at least call Finnick last night to find out anything about his current location?"

"You know Judy, last night it took me quite some time to let it sink in on what you confessed to me." Nick stated. "But the fact your story made sense otherwise, not even for myself it wasn't something I could let my mind slip away from that thought. I've been having some trust issues myself with Finnick in the past ever since this all started for us you know."

Judy thought for a moment at what Nick might have had in mind. "You're talking about that time at the uh, the Claw street incident aren't you?"

Nick nodded silently. "Lots of animals were killed that night. And Finnick… Finnick without any hesitation shot that lion straight in the head.

Judy went over and put her paw on Nick's shoulder. "We've been over this already Nick, Finnick only did it to protect Danny from being killed himself."

Nick tried not to go off to another completely different subject. "A-anyways so yes, I actually did try to call him that night to ask about the suspicions you and myself had put on him. Only problem was that he wasn't picking up his phone. I tried his home phone number as well, but to no surprise it sent me right to voicemail on that one too."

"So then what does that mean for him?" Judy asked. "Is he really going to go to extreme measure if he'll do nothing but get what he wants at the end of it?"

"But really the question is, what _does_ he want at the end of it?"

Judy shrugged. "Retribution for his mother maybe? I don't know."

"He must want to put all the blame on Z for that one then." Nick said.

"Look it doesn't matter what his motive for this may be." Judy said. "We need to find Finnick fast, otherwise he might just get himself killed."

Nick bit his lip just thinking about the thought of another one of his closest friends dying. "I think I'll go over to his place after work just to see if he really is there, as well as possibly finding the files you had. You could come along if you want seeing as you're that desperate to find those files."

"Well, better than nothing for a starting location." Judy admitted. "But the only reason I'd be desperate is if the ZPD went snooping around his apartment and came across the files of all those mammals."

"But as of now, I'd say we head back inside, but this money stealing thing with you is not over between us Judy." Nick said, as he started walking towards the entrance.

"That reminds me actually Nick." Judy called out. "What exactly was _your_ secret Z found out about you? I mean everyone knows about mine, Finnick's and Clawhauser's, Danny I might want to ask him some time, but what about you Nick? every time I've asked you about it, you don't say a peep about it."

Nick stood there in silencea moment. "When the time is right Judy, then I'll say it." He said, as he continued walking away.

 _"_ _Dumb fox."_ Judy thought.

* * *

Later that evening.

Nick and Judy's shift ended sooner or later continuing to work on a side project of some stolen electronics from an electronics store. When they were out for the night, both of them caught a train to head on their way to Finnick's place.

"Funny how they left the DVD player behind huh?" Judy chuckled, as both her and Nick were sitting on the train.

"Well like I said to you inside that limo during the night howlers case, nobody ever uses CD's anymore."

"Oh by the way, forensics came back with a positive ID on the footprints we saw at the scene after we saw that bottle of water spill on the security camera." Judy informed. "They were certain the prints belonged to a raccoon, but it would take a bit more time to find out who's specifically."

"Well it doesn't really matter who did it carrots, just as long as we get our paycheck by the end of the week then its fine by me."

"I had a hunch _you_ would see it that way." Judy said, as the train made a halt.

"Come on, the apartment should be right up this alleyway." Nick said, as he and Judy walked out of the train.

The Canal district was the most worn down area of Zootopia by far. Multiple abandoned buildings and constructions sites, and more of the mammals there were not what typical animals would refer to as _friendly_.

Nick definitely felt sympathy for Finnick having to live around parks such as those, but it was the best he could do with the amount of money he had been pulling in lately for himself. A few minutes later, Nick and Judy reached the apartment. Judy didn't think there could be another apartment in worse state than the one she was living in, but just looking at the outside made her stand-correct herself. There was nothing but leaking and cracked walls, poor circuit wires, and even vines spreading higher than her on the wall.

When they walked inside, Judy couldn't help but feel somewhat awkward while walking through the lobby, as the facial expressions on the other mammals inside the lobby said it all. The two then went to the stairs and walked up to the floor Finnick's room was on. The only problem they had to face was how to get inside.

"He didn't happen to hide a spare key anywhere did he?" Judy asked.

"No, he thinks having a spare key lying around would eventually be found and used on his door, so he just keeps one key with him at all times." Nick replied. "He practically sleeps with it just so no one can steal it from him."

"So no other way in huh?" Judy asked. "Well then, it seems to me the best course of action is by using force."

"I guess so." Nick agreed. "I wonder if we could find a chair, or maybe some sort of table laying around on this-"

"KICK!"

The door then flew right open after Judy did a good enough kick to open it.

"What are you doing, someone could have heard that!" Nick shouted.

"Nick come on, by the looks the mammals gave us in the lobby, do you really think anyone living here would care unless it was their own room?"

Nick thought about it. "Oh, well probably not I suppose. But still Judy, look what you did to his door!"

"Relax Nick, if he turns out to be innocent and this is all somehow just a big misunderstanding, then I'll take the fall on the financial side of it." Judy offered. "Does that sound better for you?"

Nick put his paws on his waist and sighed. "I'm not proud of it, but whatever floats your boat carrots. And speaking of which, where did you learn how to kick like that?"

"The academy, where else?" Judy replied rhetorically. "I remember this one time where I had to fight a rhinoceros in one of the boxing rings for training, I jumped onto one of the springs attached on the sides and aimed right at the guys arm. Needless to say, his own arm backfired on him and ended up sticking himself to the ground for I'd say a good five minutes."

"Jeez, I'd hate to be that guy right now."

"You would." Judy said giggling while thinking about the thought.

As the two entered the apartment room, in Judy's perspective it looked like someone had already been in here and trashed up the place. Yet for Nick's perspective, it looked just the way it had always been every time he came here.

"Okay well, best place to start would probably be any of the closets around here." Judy said.

"Alright then I'll see what there is to find in bedroom." Nick said.

When Nick opened the door to the bedroom, he could tell just at first glance Finnick wasn't much of a laundry mammal as there was close, and empty rappers and cans all over the floor. Nick began searching the drawers, but there was nothing to find in sight.

Judy meanwhile was emptying out all of Finnick's belongings from the closets until she could find what she was looking for. While she was going through a box filled with unpaid receipts, she came across a sticky note deep under the other papers.

"76 Crawbone Drive…" Judy murmured, as she was reading the note. "'Place to go when in a snag'. What sort of a snag was Finnick thinking of if it ever happened? Still, could be one place in mind he would go to."

Judy then folded the note and put it in her back pocket for safe keeping. She thought before she continued to check through the other closets, she would check the kitchen first since she wasn't quite expecting to find anything in there. But as she was walking towards the kitchen, she could have sworn she heard movement inside.

 _"_ _What the…"_ Judy thought. _"Nick can't be in there, he's still going examining the bedroom."_

As a precaution, Judy took out the tranquillizer gun from her belt and pointed it at the door, as she slowly walked closer to it and opened in. To her surprise, a tall hooded was standing in front of her. She instantly gasped at the sight and pointed her gun at the mammal.

"Police!" Judy shouted. "You are trespassing in this mammal's apartment, paws where I can see them or I will put you to the ground!"

The mammal then slowly turned around with their paws in the air. But when the mammal had turned around, both Judy and the hooded mammal were surprised to see what they saw when they looked at each other.

 _"_ _He's got a headset drawing on the face area of his hoodie…"_ Judy thought. "Hold on a second…" She said.

 **"** **Wait a minute, Judy?"** The mammal asked, as he was unzipping the face part of the hoodie he was wearing. **"What the heck are you doing-"** The mammal paused himself, as he turned his voice changing collar off. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing Danny!" Judy shouted back, putting her tranquillizer gun away. "Jesus, you nearly gave _me_ a heart attack!"

Judy and Danny then heard Nick running over to the kitchen door. "Judy what's wrong, I heard shout-" He pause himself when he noticed Danny in the kitchen as well. "Danny? Danny what the heck are you doing here?"

"That's what I just said!" Judy exclaimed. "So how about an answer, huh Danny?"

'Well first of all I was checking the couch by the living room until I heard a loud kick on the door." Danny explained. "That's why I just followed my instincts and ran into the kitchen."

"Okay, I get why you'd want to hide from us, but _why_ are you here?" Nick asked.

"Well I assume it's the same reason you two are here for." Danny replied.

"Oh yea, and what would that be?" Judy asked.

"I'm looking for Finnick also." Danny answered. "You see, last week he phoned me and I'm pretty sure wanted to talk me into helping me with this sort of plan he has to take away the Z problem."

"What sort of plan?" Nick asked.

"Oh god…" Danny said hesitating a bit. "Okay, for the record I thought he wasn't actually serious about this plan since it sounds ludicrous for any mammal to do to Z especially. On the night he told me about his plan, he said he was going to kidnap his ex-wife."

"HE WHAT?!" Both Nick and Judy shouted at the same time.

"That's why I thought he was just playing!" Danny shouted in defense. "Only to get a call a call a few days later to him saying he's already done it, and wants my help."

"No, no that's not possible, we would've heard about it by now from the ZPD and we've been there all day." Judy said.

"The daughter of the woman he talked to me about kidnapping only phoned the police about the disappearance this afternoon." Danny informed. "She said she thought her mother was on some sort of overnight business trip she forgot to tell her about. But after another day had passed and still no sign of her, she informed the police about the issue."

"Well we were inside that office all day, so we might have missed the news going around the ZPD at that time Judy." Nick said.

"So after I realized Finnick had actually already done it, I decided to come over to his apartment to figure out where he went." Danny continued. "I tried his phone already numerous times, but it seems like he didn't feel like bring it." He said pointing to a table where his cellphone was. "But still, the one thing I never understood yet was how he figured out where Z's ex lived."

"The files…" Judy mumbled.

"The what?" Danny asked.

"She's talking about some files she printed out at the ZPD which have some critical information about Z, and some of his crew." Nick replied. "It would also explain why he wanted to steal the files in the first place. By the way Judy I was about to tell you, I found the files underneath his sock drawer."

Judy's eyes widened. "R-really?

"Uh huh, and it seems like Finnick was more interested in Z's file than the other ones as I found most of them in the bag, but I found two files sitting on his night table he seemed to have been the most interested in." Nick explained. "One belonged to Z, and the other belonged to Richard Panniston, the guy we tried to accuse without the rest of the ZPD knowing by putting a gun on his lawn."

"Panniston, why would Finnick be interested in Panniston's profile?" Danny asked.

"Whatever the reason, it definitely wouldn't be something I want to see happen anytime soon." Judy said. "Well nice work on finding the files Nick, but I still can't believe it really was Finnick who took them."

"Neither can I." Nick said.

"Okay Nick here's what I'm thinking." Judy said. "Hey Danny, how did you get here?"

"With my dad's car, why?"

"I'm thinking before we do anything else, I should probably bring these back to my apartment for safe keeping." Judy said. "Then afterwards, there's a location I might want to check out which might be where Finnick is right now."

* * *

It wasn't too much of a surprise that Z had already heard about the recent events. He was particularly stressed about his own ex-wife having gone missing without any knowledge to it. The irony in it was that every _other_ missing mammal case the city has come against was something he actually did know about which other mammals didn't.

"Britney, have Hector and Allan come back yet from that weird phone call you received earlier last night?" Z asked, as he was sitting in his office inside the storage room at Jerry's cheesecake store.

 _"_ _Yes, in fact they just called Z."_ Britney replied. _"They said they would've came back early if it hadn't been for the slight detours they had to do along the way."_

"Define what they meant by detours for me Britney."

 _"_ _They said they would be back soon sir, you can ask them yourself when they get back."_

"I appreciate the enthusiasm Britney." Z said sarcastically.

 _"_ _I suppose I should just keep it up then."_

Z then turned off the signal to Britney outside of his office. Even for a crime boss, hearing about a mysterious voice on a phone from his own crew member's phone was the least of his worries at the moment. He thought it would be a good idea to play it safe and phone his daughter to see if she was still okay from hearing the news about her mother.

 _"_ _Please pick up Zoe…"_ Z thought, as the phone continued to ring.

 _"_ _Dad?"_ Said a voice on the other end of the call.

"Hey there Zoe sweetie." Z replied. "Listen, I just heard the news about your mother as well. How are you holding up?"

 _"_ _I'd be better if I knew where she was."_ Zoe replied.

"I know honey, dad's feeling the same way right now too." Z said. "I got a call from the police saying they recommended you should stay at my house for the time being, just until they figure out what's up with mom. Does that sound good to you?"

 _"_ _Yea, I guess so."_ Zoe replied. _"Are you at the house right now?"_

"Uh, not just yet."

 _"_ _Where are you then?"_

"Uh just… just finishing up some paperwork at the office honey, that's all." Z replied. "I had a lot more than I expected today and I just want to finish them up before coming home."

 _"_ _Well if I do come, can you promise me you'll be there before I fall asleep?"_

"I'll do my best Zoe, I promise."

 _"_ _Thanks."_ Zoe said. _"Oh and dad?"_

"Yea?"

 _"_ _I love you."_

Z smiled. "I love you to very much Zoe, I'll be home as soon as I can." He said, as he hung up the phone before hearing knocking on his door. "Come in."

Then two mammals then entered the room. Z right away recognized the two as the mammals he sent over to Richard's place to investigate the mysterious voice call received from one of Richard's phones.

"Gentle mammals, what have you got?" Z asked the two.

"Well myself and Hector went over to Richard's place like you said, but by the time we got there it seemed like we were too late."

"Too late how?" Z asked.

"Well, too late as in someone had already clapped Richard by the time we got there." Hector replied.

"Oh that mother…" Z said, as he approached his trash can and kicked it across the room. "What was the cause of death?"

"He seemed to have been shot in the head right in front of his front door." Allan answered. "So as you can imagine, we had to take some extra time by grabbing all the guns in his place, as well as bringing his body over to the Kafya desert with all the other ones. It definitely was a mess cleaning up the remains of what was originally part of his… head but my point is we made sure no evidence would be found which could trace back to us."

"Um that's not all sir, there was one more thing we found on the body when we walked inside the house." Hector informed, as he took a small piece of sticky note out of his back pocket and handed it to Z. "Because of other recent matters which you have been informed about, I believe this was intended for you."

When Z finished reading the sticky note, he fell right onto his chair in disbelief. "This?" He asked. "That little pipsqueak shot one of my mammals just so he could inform me about _this_?"

"Well what should we do then?" Allan asked.

Z bit his lip at the thought of what the note said really happening. "Find out where that piece of trash they call Finnick is, and bring him to me immediately."

"How?" Hector asked. "We tried contacting him via cellphone, but no one was picking up with the number we tried."

"Look into some places in the past with other kidnapped-involved events, or just large abandoned areas itself and start looking around them." Z ordered. "And if what this guy is saying is true, then we have a time-limit to find him before kills-" He paused himself, not wanting to finish the sentence. "… Before he carries out what he's prepared to do."

"We'll get a team on that right away sir." Allan said.

"Then get to it, and fast cause it's now or never guys."

The two mammals then walked out of the room and closed the door. Z didn't act like it out loud, but inside was a raging ball of fury the eye has never seen he could show any second.

 _"_ _This mammal actually had the guts to try something on my personal life?"_ Z thought. _"That is far beyond crossing line of my standards, hell even beyond the point where I get pissed off enough to do something violent. So help me if I even catch him touching Francine… He's going to wish he was never born."_

Even staring at the note was hard enough on him, but couldn't help but repeat the message on it over and over in his head. _"Five days to turn yourself in, or Francine is next."_

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 33, Imagining The Worst**


	34. Imagining The Worst

**Chapter 33: Imagining The Worst**

"Is this the place Judy?" Nick asked, as he Judy and Danny were approaching a worn-down building under the suspicions of Finnick possibly being inside it.

"It's the same address I found on the Sticky note so it should be." Judy replied. "The note was a reminder for him to go to 76 Crawbone Drive in case if he was ever in a snag about something. Sounds to me like it could be more than just something wouldn't you say?"

"I don't know guys, is it really a safe idea to be going inside this place?" Danny asked. "I mean what if Finnick isn't exactly… _Finnick_ anymore?"

"The hell's that supposed to mean Danny?" Nick asked.

"I mean he's already gone insane by kidnapping an ex of a crime boss, do you think he's still right in the mind after losing his own mother, and performing a daring act such as that?"

"Finnick's not going insane Danny, he just never tends to think things through very often." Nick replied, as the three began walking inside the building.

"Let's just hope it's that." Judy said.

The building they entered seems to be what was originally a business building, but now just another abandoned building casted away to the streets of the wild.

"Seems like around a seven or eight story building, it might take a bit of searching to do to find him if he really is here." Nick said. "Okay, I'll start on the bottom floor while-"

"SSHHHH!" Judy said. "Do you hear that?"

The three mammals stayed silent and listened carefully. It was very vague, but they began to hear sounds of a moan of some sort coming from floors above them.

"Sounds like we're not the only animals in here after all." Nick said.

"Yea, I think the sound seems to have come from the fourth floor." Judy said walking towards the door to the stairwell. "At the very least, it sure seems like one good place to start at."

"Now hold on a second Judy, don't go making dumb luck assumptions saying that the sound came from the fourth floor." Nick questioned. "It does sound like it came from above, but we can't be certain of the floor."

"Nick, did you ever go to biology class?" Judy asked. "Rabbits can have a pretty damn good enough sense of hearing, we would know on sound terms such as this for what floor the sound came from if we paid close enough attention."

Nick thought about it. "Alright fine, we'll check the fourth floor. But just know if you're wrong about this Judy, you'll be listening to what I say next time."

Judy shrugged. "Whatever you want to hear Nick."

The three then began walking up the stairs to the fourth floor. By the time they reached the floor, it became clear to them there really was an increasing sound of moaning coming from one of the rooms. They decided to follow the sounds of the moaning until they could narrow it down to one certain door on the floor. But it wasn't easy since all around them there were office boxes and multiple doors to choose from. But one of the doors caught Judy's eye as it seemed to be the only door in the room that was locked.

"Hey guys, what about that one?" Judy asked pointing to the door. "Those doors seem to be the only one on this floor locked with what seems to be chains around it. Now I don't know about you guys but even in an abandoned office building such as this, you normally wouldn't ever see a chained up door unless someone's got something to hide.

"Well how about we don't just stand here, and let's check it out then." Danny said.

Once the three approached the chained doors, they could tell instantly it was the room they heard the moaning come from.

"This seems like the kind of chaining technique where you would want to keep something or someone in, not by keeping someone out." Judy said.

"Why would you say that?" Danny asked.

"Because there's no lock on the chains." Judy replied. "Finnick might not have been able to require a lock fast enough, so he just made a knot with some of the chains he had from the outside so whatever was in there couldn't get out from inside."

"Super fascinating lesson you're teaching Danny here Judy, but how about we just take the chains off and open the door already please?" Nick asked.

"Alright, alright." Judy said, as she began untying the chain on the door. Once she had untied the whole chain, she had this sick feeling in her stomach on what was to see on the other side of those doors. Nevertheless, with full confidence in herself she slowly twisted the knob on the door and opened it.

The first thing the three mammals saw was another mammal in front of them, but not Finnick. The mammal in the room was taped to a chair from the side of the wall.

"Sweet mother of…" Nick murmured, as he was shocked to find someone who looked to be beaten to the pole tied up.

Judy then ran over to the mammal to see if she was still breathing. "Ma'am, ma'am are you still there?" Judy asked, as she began to see the mammals eyes open a little.

"Woah, woah, woah hang on a second Judy." Danny said. "I recognize that zebra from the news I saw earlier… Oh my god, that's Francine Stripes, Z's ex!"

Both Nick and Judy gasped after realizing who the mammal on the chair was. "Wait just a minute Danny, are you sure this is the same zebra you saw from the news?"

"Positive, she has the same scratch marks on her neck just like the ones I saw from the picture the news showed of what she looked like on the TV."

Judy just in case looked on the zebra's neck to see if Danny really was telling the truth, and sure enough he was. But in order to get more answers about what all this was about, Judy took the tape off her mouth to see if she had the strength to talk.

"Ma'am are you there?" Judy said, while looking directly into the eyes of Francine's. "We're going to get you to a hospital immediately, but first we need to know what happened to you."

" _Uh… uhhh…"_ Francine moaned, as she was still trying to regain consciousness. "What happened…" She asked looked around only to spot the three animals immediately. "Y-you guys aren't with that fennec fox, are you?"

"No, don't worry we are not." Nick assured. "But can you at least tell us how you got here?"

"I… I remember I was in my house." Francine began explaining. "I was just turning on the dishwasher from the dinner plates, and then I suddenly heard the door open. I went over to take a look to see who was there, but before I knew it some mammal covered in black had a gun pointed on my back! He threatened to kill my daughter if I didn't comply so I ended up getting tied up and put into some sort of van. The next thing I knew, I was tied to this chair inside the same building."

"You still sure he's the same mammal now Nick?" Judy asked.

Nick had a bad feeling in his mind Judy was right, but he decided to ignore the thought for the time being. "Come on let's just untie her and get out of here before we run into you know who."

"Y-you guys aren't working for Zamiel, are you?" Francine asked.

"Well I wouldn't say it's the kind of working where we would _want_ to work in this sort of business but-" Judy said pausing herself. "Hold on, you know about Zamiel's business?"

"Of course I do, it's why I divorced him in the first place." Francine replied. "I wouldn't want my girl growing up with a father like him."

"But, why haven't you ever told anyone by now about this?" Judy asked.

"Believe me, I've tried numerous times now." Francine answered. "But something inside me told myself it was never the right thing to do. And thinking about what my girl would think of my father as after all these years of looking up to him, it was just too much pressure on me."

"Well, do you mind at least coming back to the station with us then if you're stable enough to not need a hospital?" Nick asked. "You don't have to mention a word about Z… I mean Zamiel to the ZPD if you want, but we can get whoever did this to you off the streets."

Francine thought about it. "…Alright, I suppose it wouldn't kill me to-"

Just then, before Francine could say anything else she gasped as she saw the same mammal dressed in black who had kidnapped her from her home. The other three were curious as to what she was staring at, so when they turned their heads around as well, they saw the same thing she was seeing.

 **"** **That's far enough you three."** Finnick said with his voice changing collar on, as he was pointing his gun at the four mammals in the room. **"Now get out of here if you know what's good for you."**

"No way Finnick, not this time." Nick said. "Now I don't know what it is you think you're trying to prove here by kidnapping the ex of a crime boss, but it's pretty god-damn stupid!"

 **"** **Stupid?** Finnick said rhetorically. **"You actually think everything I've done so far has been stupid? Well the way** ** _I_** **see it Nick, I'm the only one out of the four of us who is actually _willing_ to do the necessary measures it takes to stop this all, which is exactly why I'm giving Z a time limit on this."**

"No, the necessary measure would be to inform the ZPD about all this if you really were that desperate, not resolving to kidnap someone!"

 **"** **Do you really think I'm going to let Z off that easily after what his crew did to my mother?"**

"What do you mean, it wasn't his crew's fault she died of sickness Finnick, that's uncalled for!" Danny shouted.

 **"** **Oh so Z never told you guys the truth either did he?"** Finnick asked. **"My mother didn't die from sickness, SHE WAS SHOT IN THE BLOODY FACE!"** He shouted, as the three then had shocked expressions on their faces. **"I overheard it from a couple mammals of Z's a little while back. We were all deceived by his lies just so he wouldn't want us to turn on him at any point again!"**

"Finnick I understand your pain in all of this here, but you should understand you weren't the only one who had to go through something like that." Nick said. "I watched my own mother die before my very eyes because of that monster! But do you see me kidnapping mammals who literally had nothing to do with anything we've all been involved with after all this time?"

 **"** **Yea well you know what Nick, maybe that's just because you don't got the guts to do anything about it yourself."** Finnick shot back. **"Maybe you and this little militia group of yours here have been so concentrated in thinking about saving other's lives, that you don't stop for a second in thinking about saving your own!"**

"You know what maybe you're right Finnick, but this is not the right way to do so!" Judy shouted. "Now please, just let this innocent mammal go and we will be able to sort all of this out with Z, I promise you that! But for the time being, can you just please lower the gun?"

 **"** **It's too late to come back from this Judy, when I kidnap a mammal and shoot another, you should know what I want from this at the very least."** Finnick said. **"If you really still think I'm going to let her go, then you should forget you even thought about it because I'm not. I'm going to show Z just what sweet vengeance will feel like after all the things he has done to us so far! Think about your mother Nick, think about Clawhauser!"**

"Wait hold on a second, let's take a few steps back from what you told us." Danny said. "When you said you kidnapped a mammal and shot another, what exactly did you mean by that?"

There was silence in the room for a moment before Finnick spoke. **"It's exactly what it sounds like Danny, there's no need to be more specific than that."**

Nick's eyes widened after understanding what he meant as well. "Hang on, you mean to tell us you shot another mammal?"

 **"** **I had to take necessary measure so yes some shooting was involved, but why does that matter?"**

"…. Where?" Judy asked.

 **"** **Where, what do you mean where?"**

"Where did you shoot this mammal?"

 **"** **Where no animal could ever come back from, the head."**

All three of them exhaled in disbelief after hearing what Finnick just told them.

"YOU SHOT ANOTHER ANIMAL?!" Judy Shouted.

"It couldn't have been Richard Panniston, could it Finnick?" Danny asked.

 **"** **How the hell could you have known about Richard Panniston Danny?"**

"Well Nick said he found two specific files on your night table when we all went to check on you at your apartment." Danny answered. "We would've understood why you may have wanted to look at Z's file if you wanted to find Francine here, but it didn't make any sense on why you would have wanted to look at Panniston's. But it looks like we know the reason now."

 **"** **Oh yea, and what would that be?"**

"You wanted to find out where he lived so you could kill him, it's the only reason possible." Danny replied. "Now I don't know what sort of motive you had that made you want to do it, BUT IT'S INSANE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!"

Finnick sighed. **"Alright fine. So I might have had to cap a mammal or so along the way, but if you're in my position right now, you'd want to make tough choices as well."**

"WHAT JIBERISH ARE YOU GOING ON ABOUT FINNICK?!" Judy shouted once more. "YOU KILLED SOMEONE! DON'T YOU FEEL ANY REMORSE FOR IT?!"

 **"** **It's hard to when you know the city would've been better off without him."** Finnick said. **"If he was with Z for all those years, then obviously he would've had to have done what I did to him with a few other mammals by now."**

"That's not the point Finnick!" Nick yelled. "Do you even realize now what you've just done? We are talking about imagining the worst possible outcomes not just for you, but for all of us now! And once Z finds you, you're going to be done for now unless you turn yourself in!"

 **"** **Turning myself in is not something I am not interested in doing Nick, not after how far I've come to take care of this mess you've brought upon us."** Finnick said disagreeing. **"Besides, even if he finds me he'll have to obey my commands. If he doesn't, then little striped miss over there won't be coming out of here walking in a few days from now I can tell you that much."**

"Finnick listen, we're taking this innocent mammal out of here and that's that." Judy said. "And after what you've done up until now, I suggest you run away as far as you can if you know what's good for _you._ " She said pointing to him.

"BANG!"

A shriek of agony was instantly heard throughout the whole building as Finnick had shot Danny through his right leg.

 **"** **Say that again Judy."** Finnick said aggravated. **"Come on, say it! I dare you too."**

"YOU SHOT ME YOU CRAZY PSYCHOPATH!" Danny yelled, as he was trying to put pressure on the wound.

 **"** **Now you three get out of here, or the next one goes in the rabbit's foot."** Finnick said now pointing the gun at Judy. **"What, you think I'm joking? Get out now!"**

"Okay, okay Finnick, we're going!" Nick shouted, obeying what Finnick commanded.

 **"** **And shut the door on your way out!"**

"No, no, no you guys have to get me out of here please!" Francine yelled.

"I'm sorry, it seems like there's nothing we can do to change his mind now." Judy said. "We will get you out of here ma'am, but for now you're going to have to hold tight until that happens."

"Please, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH HIM!" Francine yelled once more.

Judy tried to ignore the sounds of begs and cries no matter how much she hated the sound of it. A few seconds later, Nick and Judy helped carry Danny by the waist out of the room and closed the door but still hearing the cries for help on the inside.

"Okay, first order of business is to make sure no one finds out how Danny got the injury on his leg." Judy said. "It's a good thing that bullet went through otherwise we would have been in an even more complicated situation than it already is."

"We can take Danny to my place, I got a first aid kit I can use to patch up the wound." Nick offered. "Does that sound okay with you Danny?"

"Whatever…. Stops the pain…. I'll take it." Danny said, while trying not to moan from his leg injury.

"Alright, then let's get going before someone notices the noises coming from the building." Judy said, as her, Danny and Nick were walking down the stairwell and outside the back. From there they got into the car as Danny began driving slowly and steadily away from the building due to his injury.

* * *

"I didn't think it would ever come down to this." Nick said, as he, Judy and Danny were inside his apartment. "But I guess you were right after all Danny, Finnick really is going insane."

"Insane is hardly the word I wold use for it now that we know what else he's done OW!" Danny howled, as Nick was wrapping a bandage around the wound of his leg.

"Oh shut up Danny I'm hardly even touching you." Nick said. "Besides, this will scar up sooner or later but for the time being, I suggest you hide it as well as you can from the public. And if someone ever asks about it or notices it, just say you broke your leg while you were fixing something. You fix stuff at an automobile shop don't you?"

"Well yes but there hasn't been this bad of an injury ever since one of my colleagues Mikey got his tail broken when it was smashed by a car most mammals assumed was already chained up properly."

"Well, there's a first time for everything right?"

Danny chuckled. "I suppose now there is."

"So he put one right through his leg just because you said something he didn't like?" Amber asked, as Judy was informing her about the events that had just taken place.

"it's how it went, but it seems like it could've been a lot worse by the looks of it." Judy replied. "But right now though in the spot Finnick put himself in, he's beginning to turn into a liability for almost everyone, including the police even if they don't know it yet."

"It's exactly the main reason you should all just stay out of it." Amber suggested. "By the looks of it you tried talking some sense into him, but things must have gone down a bad road seeing as how he confessed to murdering someone, and going even further by putting a bullet through one of your friends like that."

"Nick just thinks he doesn't seem to be going insane, but that he doesn't seem to understand what he's doing and the outcome of it."

"What's the difference?"

"I know, mind trickster isn't it?" Judy said. "But off topic here Amber, I don't believe we've ever met each other without the hoodies up until now, am I correct?"

"Yea, feels weird when you think about it." Amber replied. "I just… needed a place to lay low for the time being, and luckily when I found out one of the mammals beneath the mysterious five's hood, I guess you can say I was thankful enough for letting Nick take me in until further notice."

"Oh I totally understand where you're coming from on that one, not worry Amber." She said as the two chuckled a little. "But it's also something I've found rather odd with your case."

"Odd, odd how Judy?"

"Well I mean, I get you were forced to stay low in a place you thought Z would never find you but he did anyways." Judy explained. "But when he finds you, Nick somehow persuades him into not only not killing you, but doesn't seem to find you as a target anymore."

"Your point being?"

"Well, if you don't have a target on your back anymore then why did you never leave?" Judy asked. "There's no other reason you may have that wants you to stay here. You could go anywhere around the world with a new job and identity by the looks of it, if you have a new guy to go to after he or she failed to cover you during the fake bodies incident, but you choose not to it seems."

Amber thought about it for a moment. "Well, the night Z stormed into this apartment, Nick gave a crucial fact that he may need me for a helping paw if he ever needed one. Now back then, he couldn't think straight since he ended up having no choice but to shut his business down for a while afterwards."

"True, but that doesn't seem to be the case for you anymore." Judy said. "Now it's almost as if he's forgotten who you are."

Amber laughed. "Hopefully that's the case Judy."

"But then that just brings me back to the same question, why haven't you left yet?"

Amber paused for a moment while trying to look for an answer she thought was the best to say. But as she was thinking about it, Nick walked up to the two while in the kitchen.

"Oh, so how's he looking Nick?" Judy asked.

"He'll make it, but he can barely walk with his leg in that state Judy." Nick replied. "And were talking about a month or more until he can even walk normally again. I told him if anyone ever asks about, deny and deny as much as he could about it enough to blend in with other typical injuries mammals would get."

"Okay, so I guess it's safe to say we have the Danny situation under control, but the Finnick one is something we do not seem to be the ones in control of."

"Well that's what I just told Judy, saying that there's no use in trying to help him if he's not willing to take the help in the first place." Amber said.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean Z won't be doing anything about it." Nick said. "I'm guessing he also knows a place or two where some mammals have kidnapped other mammals and held them up somewhere in a kind of dense and low-populated area. If one of those buildings is that office building we were just at, then there's no way in telling what will happen when they find Z's ex Francine I think her name was, tied to a chair with Finnick aiming his gun at her with paws on the trigger."

"Do you think Z's guys will be the one to take care of the situation even?" Judy asked. "I mean if they have already figured out by now it was Finnick who killed Richard Panniston, they may begin to assume some unpleasant things as well. Who knows, maybe Finnick will know they're coming and set some deadly traps for them all."

"Or it could mean Z will get sloppy again and send as much of his mammals as he can over to the building if they ever actually do find out where he's keeping Francine." Nick said. "That should surely be able to make some noise even some of the mammals from Downtown would be able to hear."

"That's true, and Z's has been in this business for at least fifteen years or more by now and even _he_ has ended up making a few slip-ups himself."

"But do you really think that's something we want to find out about?" Danny butted in, as he was limping over to the other three in the kitchen.

"No, not at all Danny but that's not what's important at the moment." Nick said. "What's important it making the smartest choice for our benefit. And maybe Amber's right, maybe we should do nothing and let the fireworks unfold. I mean we tried to persuade him, but that's when you have to ask the question which is if he really _can_ be persuaded any more than what we've tried already from him. Who knows, maybe it will turn out totally unexpected and no one will end up dying at the end of the day."

"We don't even know _when_ Finnick is planning to pull the trigger before he wants Z to do what he wants." Judy said. "All he said was a few days so maybe he might decide to do it in like, three or four days from now but we can't be too sure of it."

"Do you really believe it's possible for anyone to find out about Finnick and Francine?" Danny asked.

"Well for Finnick's sake, he better hope it's not Z who will." Nick replied.

* * *

June 12th, 2017, two days later

"No you see, 'N' would equal to 48, not 4 because it's asking you to find the average monthly payment and think about it, there are 12 months in a year and this is after 4 years of payment." Z said, as he was helping his daughter Zoe with some math problems.

"Why is financing so complicated?" Zoe asked.

"It grows on you when it's a part of your job sweetie, believe me I know." Z admitted. "And to me this stuff is for amateurs when it comes to the financing I have to deal with on a daily basis."

Zoe laughed. "Well then I have my deepest sorrows for you." She said sarcastically.

Z smiled. "Alright, alright focus, you're nearly done with it after all so finish it up. I've given you enough help that it seems like you can be able to do the rest on your own."

"Aw, but I like your help!"

"Well then that's tough on you Zoe." Z said. "You see one day I won't be able to be there for you when you run into the same problem such as your math questions, so think of this as a practicing strategy for when that day comes."

Zoe sighed. "Fair enough, but that doesn't mean I'll be able to pick up the routine straight away you know."

"Well then try to think of it as a good start." Z said when Just then, his phone began to ring. When he looked at the number to see who was phoning, he knew this was a private matter he couldn't have his daughter listening in on. "It's work, sorry sweetie but I got to take this. But try as best as you can with the rest of those questions."

"You got it."

Z then went out of the kitchen and went into his bedroom to answer the phone. _"It's frank's number."_ Z thought. _"That mouse is our best mammal to look up to if we're ever in a need of finding anyone. I really hope he's got a lead on the location of Francine by now."_

Hoping for any form of good news to hear, he answered the phone. "What do you got for me Frank, have you found any new leads yet on the certain matters I discussed with you?"

 _"_ _More than just a lead Z."_ Frank replied. _"We've found her."_

Z's eyes widened, as he got up and closed his bedroom door so he wouldn't be too loud for Zoe to hear. "Are you serious, you mean to tell me you were actually able to find her?"

 _"_ _Yes we have, but we've run into a bit of a snag along the way."_ Frank said _"We sent one of our guys Howard inside to check it out and see if there was anything to find, but he opened one of the doors and straight away he was shot in the shoulder by some hooded mammal with a pizza slice for a drawing on it."_

 _"_ _Finnick…"_ Z thought angered. "Frank, I don't want you to do anything else and back away."

 _"_ _Wait what, what are you talking about Z?"_ Frank asked confused. _"This mammal's got your ex while waving his gun around your head, why should we just cap him here and now?"_

"I know what this guy's done to some of my mammals." Z replied. "He's too dangerous to surprise attack since he most likely has already planned ahead of time for a problem such as that. Also by the sounds of it, we can't shoot anywhere outside the room because I wouldn't want them to accidentally kill her."

 _"_ _Well that's true, he did close all the blinds from the room he's keeping her in."_ Frank agreed. _"But then what are we supposed to do about it? We can't just let him keep your ex hostage, that to me sure sounds like a pretty slippery slope."_

"This guy has the upper paw on us Frank, you of all mammals should know that." Z said. "Now I am _not_ going to lose another one of my mammals over some scum like that fennec fox in that building right now again, so get you and the rest of the crew's tails out of there."

 _"_ _Okay we'll get right on that sir, but what are you going to do about the current situation?"_

"Normally I wouldn't use this method on some of my enemies, but right now it seems like we're desperate." Z said. "It doesn't matter who it is, but I want one of you to grab a voice changing collar, get to a phone booth and make a tip to the ZPD about a possible location for Francine Stripes."

 _"_ _The ZPD?"_ Frank asked. _"Sir, are you sure that's a suitable option for an occasion like this?"_

"It's our only good option left Frank, that way the problem will be out of our paws." Z explained. "Besides, if that fennec does try to fight back in any way, at least he won't be firing at any of our guys. That right there, is how we're going to deal with this problem." He said hanging up the phone.

* * *

 **Tomorrow: Chapter 34, Capturing The Enemy**


	35. Capturing The Enemy

**I understand some of you have been wondering about when the final chapter will come for this story. Well let's put it like this, it takes time for everything to fit together and understand how it got to that certain point. For instance some of the time skips I've shown in the start of a couple chapters already, as well as of course the prologue chapter itself. Don't worry though, the last chapter _will_ come one day, but just maybe not sooner than you think. ;)**

 **To anyone who didn't see my other chapter uploaded yesterday, I suggest you read that first before you begin reading this chapter. Anyways, enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 34: Capturing The Enemy**

Chief Bogo was still working over hours as long as he could until there was something out there he could find. Something that could lead him to what he was looking for that could help him sleep normally again at night, a clue. Any clue that could help him solve the toughest case he has gotten by far in his entire career, the weapons case.

File after file he looked into, in order to understand or connect any other mammals to a new lead or incident that had happened in the past, but day by day the file stack seemed to only grow larger. He was aware there have been some chat around the city causing discourage to the ZPD from doing their job right, but then again all the officers including Bogo knew what they were getting into when they signed up for this job.

He thought it would be like every typical day at the ZPD with more cases of all sorts coming in back and forth, but that thought from his head immediately went away during the late afternoon of today. Bogo today thought he could just set up a few assignments for his officers tomorrow so he would be able to get a few more minutes of sleep, especially since he hasn't been getting very many hours of it with all the new cases coming in everywhere he looked. However, as he was doing so he began to hear loud knocking on his door.

"Who is it?" Bogo called out. But without any response or permission, the officer flew right inside in front of Bogo's desk. "Officer Grizzoli, you better have a good reason for coming into a superior's office without permission."

"Apologies sir, but I think there's something important I need to tell you about that also may catch your attention." Grizzoli replied. "There was a certain call received just under ten minutes ago, something Officer Slatts got from an emergency service caller saying something _huge_ about the weapons case."

The sentence 'hearing something huge about the weapons case' was something that definitely caught the attention of Bogo not just because it could be a lead, but because it could be the _only_ lead they've gotten in a long time.

"What do you have for me that I should be aware of Grizzoli?" Bogo asked.

"There was a mammal on the phone who claims they figured out the location of one of our recent mammals gone missing, Francine Stripes." Grizzoli replied, as Bogo was nearly shocked from the look on his face. "That's not all though sir, we might have been able to get a location out of whoever the caller was, but the issue is that we don't know _who_ was phoning the station. His voice also seemed to have been altered just like the same voice changing collar we found in Clawhauser's apartment."

"Hmm, it could mean whoever phone might just want us to be walking into a trap then."

"So, what should our move be?"

Bogo thought about it for a moment before responding. "Send every cop available out in the city right now out there to secure the perimeter on the building if it really is the weapon mammals that may be involved in this. If what you say is true that this mammal's voice was altered on the phone, then what he or she's saying must be true. Now tell those cops to set up a perimeter around the building so no one gets in or out, and call the swat team to let them know we have another situation on our paws."

"I'll let everyone know right away." Grizzoli said. "Um, what sort of guns should I tell the swat team to bring, Darts or live rounds?"

"Tell them to bring both in fact." Bogo ordered. "We would want this new situation we have here to stay under control as best as we can. But if whoever these mammals are don't take I too kindly to us either, then we're going to have to use force."

"Yes sir, I will be organizing all of what you told me to everyone available." Grizzoli said obeying Bogo's orders. "If the mammals in the station are all well and organized for this task, we should be out of here within 10-15 minutes at the most." He said, as he began walking towards the door to move out.

"Hold on a second there Grizzoli." Bogo said, as Grizzoli paused while opening the door. "I think I'll be coming with you for this one."

"S-sir are you sure that's a good idea?" Grizzoli asked. "Well not to disrespect you or anything, but if this is indeed some sort of a trap the enemy has put on where they told us to go, myself or any of the officers here at the ZPD would want you to get in the line of fire sir."

Bogo chuckled. "I will only be going to show whoever is inside or even around that building for that matter, that this is a serious situation we will be getting into, not just some silly Wolf and Cariboo arguments on any typical street of Zootopia. If we can use that atmosphere to our advantage, then maybe we have a higher chance of finishing whatever's waiting for us at the building you're telling me about without any violence whatsoever."

"Very well then sir, I can't argue with you on that one." Grizzoli said. "Come on then, we should let the rest of the guys know about the plan you've made for this mission."

"That we should definitely do Grizzoli." Bogo agreed. "By the way, what's the street name we'll being heading towards?"

"The mammal on the phone specifically said the hostage was being held inside some sort of an abandoned business building on 76 Crawbone Drive." Grizzoli replied. "Immediately after we got the location, we traced it onto the computer and saw that it was in an entire abandoned area inside the Canal District."

"Alright then what are we waiting for?" Bogo asked. "Let's go capture the enemy."

* * *

For a typical evening such as Nick's now, he would always walk or take the train back home if he was lazy enough to, come into the door only to find Amber either sitting on the couch and watching in his opinion crappy comedy sitcoms, or sometimes making a normal dinner meal for him and herself. Other times he would prefer to put his stuff down on the counter and take a look at the news, but mostly because he wants to be sure Z and his crew haven't done anything violent that day he may not have known about.

"Your dinner's ready you know." Amber called out to Nick, as he was on the couch with his eyes glued to the television. "It's only soup with noodles, it's not like it's going to kill you."

Nick laughed. "I got more things on my mind right now of mammals that want to kill me, let alone getting killed _accidentally_ by some soup. Besides, I'm not feeling quite like the hungry type at the moment Amber if you know what I'm saying."

Amber sighed as she was walking over to Nick. "Nick this is the third time now where you're refusing to eat. Sometimes I end up throwing it out or even putting it away for leftovers the next day, yet I'm _still_ the one eating it all at the end of the day. And speaking of which, when exactly was the last time you ate something?"

Nick shrugged. "I don't know Thursday, yesterday maybe?"

"My point exactly." Amber said unimpressed. "You haven't eaten for so long, you can't even remember when you last ate."

"Look you're not my mother Amber, I don't need you to be telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing." Nick said. "Now just do whatever it is you'd typically do around here, but just as long as it's not bothering me please."

Amber laughed. "Whatever you say." She said, as she laid down on the same couch Nick was on.

Nick began to get a bit annoyed. "I literally just asked for you to not do that."

"No, you asked for me to not do anything that would bother you." Amber replied. "Is sitting on a couch really that bothering to you?"

"It is when I know you're doing it on purpose." Nick said. "Besides, you said you had a meal out already, so I suggest you start eating it before it gets cold."

"Well you know what Nick, maybe I'm not so hungry either now."

Nick groaned as he laid his face on the couch. " _Quit making this more difficult than it needs to be Amber."_ He said.

"Well I guess you know how I feel now then, wouldn't you?" Amber asked. "You see Nick, sometimes when someone asks you for, or to do something, they expect a specific answer from you. Not the 'no thanks, I've got better things to do' kind of crap. I would've expected you to have learned it from that Chief buffalo butt you keep referring to as your boss by now."

Nick sighed with his face still laying on the couch. " _Why is it every time I seem to learn or think about a life lesson, it always seems to be coming from you?"_ He asked. " _I'd expect this talk from Judy, even though she does it pretty often if I may say so myself, but you also seem to be up there as well Amber."_

"Well maybe it's because I understand mammals the way you do." Amber replied. "We're both foxes after all, so it shouldn't really be much of a shocker to you. But for your case, the stuff you've been putting yourself in lately has just made you lost track of it. So I assume by now you just need a few reminders on who you still are."

"Who I still am, is that a fact?" Nick asked, as he laid back upwards on the couch. "Listen Amber, who I am will never change that fact, but what others think of me myself is a whole other difference we're talking here. Some mammals just think of me as shifty and untrustworthy seeing as how everyone never really trusted foxes to begin with. And then the mammals who actually do know me would see me as sometimes the same way everyone else would, and sometimes luckily knowing me well enough might show the good inside me, I mean when would it not for any mammal?"

"Most likely." Amber said agreeing with him. "But then this certain mammal ends up having to make some choices in his life which most of the time he wouldn't want to make. Only then Nick, no matter what species of animal or your personality, does it really show what kind of a mammal you really are deep inside."

"Pffft." Nick said. "It feels like I'm talking to Z all over again with your complicated thoughts about species and personalities."

Amber laughed. "Really? How exactly did that thought ever get in your head?"

"The way both of you seem to want to keep continuously ask me questions I sometimes don't feel like responding too."

"Yea well the difference between me and Z on that one is that I wouldn't shoot you if you refused to answer." Amber said.

"Oh, so if I gave you my gun then would you think differently about it?"

Amber gasped in disbelief. "Wha- of course not!"

Nick then began to laugh. "I'm just messing with you! But hey, if you actually said a different answer like you would be willing too, then it would definitely be a pretty awkward night for the both of us."

"Yea I'll say." Amber said. "But enough chatting already Nick, can you please just sit down with me and at the very least, take a _few_ sips of the noodle soup? I'm not asking you this as if I'm some sort of a doctor prescribing you to do so, but I'm asking you this as a _friend_ who would prefer you did."

"As a friend?" Nick quoted, curious as to what she meant.

"Sure." Amber replied. "We're friends after all, aren't we?"

Nick thought about it to know whether it would sit well with him or not as them _just_ being friends. Eventually, he nodded back. "Yea, I suppose we are."

But before he could walk over to the kitchen table where his soup was placed, his home phone started ringing. He walked over to the phone to see who was calling, and interestingly enough it was Judy's cell. He might have found it odd as to why she would be calling at this time, but nevertheless picked up the phone and answered it.

"Uh hey Judy, what's the occasion this time?" Nick asked.

 _"_ _Nick, thank god you picked up!"_ Judy yelled on the other end. _"Listen to me, you need to get down to 76 Crawbone Drive immediately!"_

 _"_ Wait hold on a second Judy, 76 Crawbone Drive?" Nick asked. "Isn't that the same location Finnick has that Francine zebra held captive currently?"

 _"_ _Yes it is, which what I would say is the biggest reason why you need to get down over here right now!"_

"Okay, okay I get your acting crazy about this for a reason and all, but do you mind telling me what the heck it is you're acting crazy about?"

 _"_ _I don't know who it was or how they got the information, but the ZPD's currently arming themselves up and currently driving over to something they say is about to take place at the same address Finnick and that zebra are at!"_

Nick's entire body began to shake after hearing what was about to happen. "N-no that's, that's not possible Judy. There's no way the ZPD could have figured that location out on their own without some sort of a source!"

 _"_ _I'm not saying there wasn't one, I'm just saying I don't know what it could've been from."_ Judy mentioned. _"Now we can elaborate more on this later, but right now I need you to get your tail out of your apartment and over here pronto!"_

"Alright, alright I get it Judy, I'll be there in about ten or twenty minutes at the most." Nick said, as he hung up the phone.

"Uh Nick, what was all that about?" Amber asked.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Amber, but it seems like I won't be able to join you for soup after all." Nick replied, as he began walking to his bedroom to change into his uniform. "Somethings about to go down with Finnick, and I got a pretty bad feeling it isn't going to end well."

* * *

 **"** **Do you miss your daughter?"** Finnick asked with his voice changing collar and faced up hoodie on, as he was talking with Z's ex-wife Francine who was still tied up to the chair inside the abandoned office building.

"Any mother would miss their child if they were taken away from them." Francine replied. "Listen, I don't care who you are, or what you think you're trying to prove out of this so called reasoning of yours, BUT I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF IT!"

 **"** **You really think you've had enough of it?"** Finnick asked. **"Well you know something Mrs. Stripes, I've had about enough of this too. But no matter the pleads or plans to let me and my spineless friends stay out of his dirty work, we just get casted away from it all, and sometimes a death or two comes along with it. So I'm going to ask you this again."** He said walking towards Francine with his gun still in his paws. **"You** ** _really_** **think you've had enough of it?"**

Francine kept her head facing the floor for a moment, before putting it up and looking straight at the hooded mammal with no fear. " _Yes."_ She replied in a serious tone.

Angered from her words, Finnick climbed up onto the zebra, grabbed her shirt and hit her multiple times with his gun as hard as he could back and forth until he felt like she had enough.

 **"** **Your family sure does know how to ruffle someone's feathers."** Finnick said.

Francine ended up spitting out some blood from the hard hits she was given from the gun. "So that's how it is huh, you're just going to torture and most likely kill someone who's got nothing to do with any of this crap. Oh sure, isn't that the greatest idea of them all!" She shouted sarcastically.

 **"** **Look lady, I don't need mammals like yourself telling me about the standards of good and bad cause I got enough mammals informing me about it as it is."** Finnick stated. **"I do what I think is right, no matter how vague or outrageous it may be."**

"Yea you keep telling yourself that and see where it gets you."

 **"** **I swear to god lady, if don't stop giving me that attitude I won't hesitate to put one right in your-"** Finnick paused himself, as he started to here sirens coming from the distance. He slowly walked over to the drapes and took a peep look outside the window, only to get into the panic mode as he saw police cars coming his way. **"Shoot!"** He said kicking the wall.

"Is that what I think it is?" Francine asked. "HELP! HELP, SOMEBODY GET ME OUT OF HERE AND AWAY FROM THIS CRAZY MANIAC!"

 **"** **Shut up!"** Finnick shouted. **"Or I swear if I so much as hear another peep from you-"**

"SOMEBODY GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Francine continued to shout.

 **"** **You know what, I think it's time you had a good night sleep for a little while."** Finnick said, as Francine was still shouting as screaming while hoping someone would be able to hear her cries. Finnick then picked up a nearby wooden board, aimed it at Francine's head and swung.

"BAM!"

* * *

"Come on, come on Nick, where the heck can you be that would be taking you so long?" Judy murmured to herself, as she and multiple officers were directing citizens away from the building and setting up a perimeter around it. A few moments later, she saw Nick running over towards the police block. "Where have you been? It's been twenty-five minutes since we phoned!"

"I'm sorry okay, but it's not easy to get to some place far from your apartment like this even when you're in a rush." Nick defended. "Now can you just tell me what we're dealing with here?"

Judy knew there was no time for bickering so she decided to let it slide. "The ZPD got a report earlier this evening about shot fired inside this abandoned office building so Bogo sent every available, and even some non-available officers over here to see if they can capture the suspect, while at the same time keeping the hostage unharmed."

"Hostage, you mean Z's ex, the one we saw taped to that chair in this building?"

"Well who else do you think it is?" Judy asked frustrated. "Anyway so the caller claimed to also have heard shouting and screaming of some form of vague life threats, which is why Bogo decided to move on it immediately instead of sending an officer or two to check it out."

"It sound to me like he's becoming desperate."

"Yea well the way we've been seeing him in his state at work, he'll do anything he can to try and close this case up once and for all."

Just then, they heard a few ZPD helicopters flying by with its flashlights on the building windows. "They're taking this a bit too far don't you think?!" Nick yelled due to the loud and fast moving rotor blades.

"They still don't have a clue as to what they're dealing with yet Nick!" Judy shouted back.

"I'm going to go find Bogo to see what he knows so far about all this!" Nick shouted while walking.

"Bogo's busy telling people where to go and whatnot Nick, I doubt he'll be interested in hearing what you have to say!"

"Not unless I volunteer to go inside!"

Nick continued walking through all the police cruisers and ZPD officers everywhere around him to find Bogo. A few minutes later, he noticed him nearby talking with a group of mammals at what looked to be the SWAT team.

 _"_ _Oh boy, this can't be a good sign."_ Nick thought. _"They even have real guns with them this time, not like those dart guns we would usually carry around."_

"Now I want you all to stay cautious at _every_ turn once you go in there." Bogo ordered, as he was talking to the SWAT team about the plan. "We still aren't sure how many are in there, or if they're even still in there, but we all know the weapons this sort of group possess and what they will do if necessary when in a tight jam. We move forward with the plan in ten minutes if no sign of life comes out of that building."

Nick then ran towards Bogo to get his permission of going inside. "Chief!" He called out.

Bogo turned his head to face Nick's. "Wilde, what are you doing here?" He asked. "I never asked Fangmeyer to call you to come."

"I'm sorry sir for not coming without your knowledge, but I couldn't help but assist in any way that I could after hearing what was about to happen from officer Hopps." Nick replied. "But listen sir, going in there without _knowing_ what's in there is suicide."

"Suicide?" Bogo wondered. "Why on earth would that be Wilde?"

"Because as you said it yourself, this is a group of criminals who will never react quietly to any of the demands you ask from them." Nick answered. "You also said yourself that we don't even know what is in there yet. Who knows, maybe they've got charges or bombs hiding everywhere from behind picture frames to under a desktop."

After hearing a few more words from Wilde, Bogo began to understand what he was getting at. "What is it you're trying to suggest here Wilde?" He asked.

"Now don't get the wrong impression when I say this, but I think there should at least be one or two mammals going inside there first to scout the place." Nick suggested. "That way we will be fully aware if there are any mammals in there armed with a hostage along with them, as well as if they've rigged up anything in there so we can clear a path to search the building without it feeling like a mine field every step of the way."

"What you're saying right now _does_ sound like a plan Wilde, but also at the same time sounds like suicide as well." Bogo disagreed. "I will not risk the life of another one of my officers if push comes to shove in all of this."

"Then I will volunteer to go inside." Nick offered. "I can examine the place to make sure it's not a trap, and be on the lookout for any suspicious sounds or movement coming from inside."

'Wilde, that's easier said than done." Bogo said. "Besides, there aren't any other officers available as of now to go with you ins-"

"I will go with him." Judy said approaching Nick and Bogo.

"Hopps…" Bogo said.

"So now would it be okay for us to go and check it out?" Nick asked.

Bogo thought about it for a moment before reaching his decision and sighed. "Alright fine, but it is just for checking to see any dangers inside." He said. "I will give you both ten minutes before I send the swat team in to get a hold of the suspect or suspect inside the building."

Nick exhaled in relief." Thank you sir." He said. "You won't regret making this decision."

"I sure as hell hope I don't regret it." Bogo said. "But before you go in there, you're going to need some gear for safety precautions. Follow me over to the truck."

Once Bogo, Nick and Judy reached the truck, Bogo opened it and Judy and Nick witnessed a variety of equipment from normal walkie talkies to real life handguns.

"We're going to be using _this_ equipment sir?" Nick asked.

"This equipment you speak of Wilde are what may very well be the key to either coming out of there in one piece, or several." Bogo replied. "So I suggest you put some vests on and take those to stay cautious at all times." He said, pointing to the rows of handguns on the side of the van.

"S-sir I'm not sure if I'm capable enough to use those precautions if it does come to that." Judy said nervously.

Bogo sighed. "Hopps, I know you're not comfortable with these certain 'precautions' you speak of, but I'm pretty sure you and Wilde knew what you were signing up for when you joined the ZPD. At times like this, if it means taking another mammals life to save another, it's a risk you need to be willing to take."

"Y-yea I understood that part about it." Judy said hesitantly. "I just hoped that day would never come is all."

"But on another subject, what happens if we do come across something we won't be capable of doing alone?" Nick asked. "Should we just radio you in for the swat team to come inside?"

"Yes but remember, once you set foot inside that building you have ten minutes to search the place for any trouble whatsoever before we send in the swats immediately."

"We understand Chief." Judy said, as she was putting a vest on along with taking a Glock-19 police gun and putting it in her back pocket.

"Alright, then get your tails in there and scope the place before something bad happens."

"We're on it Chief." Nick said, as he and Judy began walking towards the building.

"Are you sure we're up to the task for this Nick?" Judy asked. "Finnick may have been yours and even my friend, but now in a tight position such as this he probably can't help but rely on his instincts if he thinks he can get out of this still."

"Well then I guess we better hope his _instincts_ will act friendly towards us." Nick replied. "But you're right though. No matter what way you look at it, he's not going to get out of this unscathed at the very least."

"But Nick, I don't know if I can go through killing him if I have too." Judy admitted. "And if you or I end up having to do it, how are we even supposed to approach Z with all of this? Or worse, how are we supposed to approach _ourselves_ with all of this?"

"Trust me carrots, I'm feeling the same way exactly about it all as well." Nick said. "But right now our priority is stopping him from going to extreme measures with that zebra. If we can do that, then it shouldn't be a problem in taking him into custody alright?"

Judy nodded. "Yea, I suppose that's one positive way to look at it… God, why did I volunteer to go with you on this, what was I thinking?"

"Well to be perfectly honest, I didn't want to volunteer myself into going in there either."

Judy was confused. "Wait so then why did you decide to? Was it because you somehow knew I would volunteer to go with you on this one or something?"

" _Please,_ I might have been a talented enough con artist to get what I wanted on the streets all those years back, but I wouldn't say playing psychic was to my best abilities." Nick stated. "But the reason I'm doing this is because it's something I have to do. I know exactly what will happen if the swat team comes in here to deal with it, and I don't want it to come to that."

"So you wanted to come in here to see if you could try to talk Finnick out of surrendering?" Judy asked. "Sounds to me like you still care for that fennec

"Well the way I see it carrots, it's either that or Finnick might just shoot that zebra Francine for his own satisfaction before getting filled with bullets himself."

"It's like you yourself isn't even sure if you can be able to stop him or not." Judy questioned. "There are literally more than half of the ZPD officers behind our backs right now hoping to do our job right and you're basically telling me you don't even have a plan to go with all of this?"

"I've decided to come up with it along the way." Nick replied. "I wish I could think about it more before I go in there, but we have a time limit so I'm just gonna go with whatever pops into my head in the meantime."

"Well whatever it is that 'pops into your head', just make sure it's good." Judy said, as the two entered the building.

Nick and Judy both remembered from last time that Finnick was keeping Francine on the fourth floor, so they thought it was as good of a place as any to start with. Once they made their way up to the fourth floor, they went over to the same room he kept her in as they immediately noticed it was closed.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Finnick had already locked it from the inside." Nick said.

"Looks like we're going to have to use force on this one then." Judy said. "On the count of three, I'll kick the door open and you run inside to lock onto the target."

"Got it."

"One…"

Nick and Judy began to get into their ready stances.

"Two…" Judy continued, as both of them took their guns out of their pockets and pointing it at the door. "THREE!" Judy shouted as she kicked the door wide open, only to see what both of them feared it wouldn't have to come down to.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 35, Kill Or Be Killed**


	36. Kill Or Be Killed

**Chapter 35: Kill Or Be Killed**

June 1st, 2017, night time

Screams. That was all anyone could hear inside the station after a kid had learned about the accident. He wouldn't stop screaming no matter what anyone else tried to do to calm him down. The police informed the mother that he lost control of his car after having the tire popped unexpectedly at such a high speed, unfortunately the rails couldn't stop the car from going down the cliff. When they went down the cliff to scavenge the car and the mammal, they could already tell by the sights he was gone.

 _"_ _Leave him be Mrs. Masto."_ An officer said. _"It's only natural for a kid to react this way when learning about the loss of a parent. It just takes time is all."_

 _"_ _I'm not worried about that."_ Mrs. Masto said still in tears. _"It's just that he's going to live the rest of his life without a father now… My husband loved him with all his heart. what am I supposed to tell him? I was a stay at home mother up until now, what am I supposed to do now financially for his future?!"_

 _"_ _Mrs. Masto, you need to take a few deep breaths and focus on what's in front of you."_ The officer suggested. _"Your boy needs you now more than ever, so be there for him."_

Mrs. Masto looked at the officer in complete devestation, as she fell onto her knees bursting into tears once more.

The funeral eventually came around as the soft and slow sounds of the bells were heard in the distance. Mrs. Masto got up from her chair and took her sons paw, as they walked over to the coffin and put a fresh rose on the top. But the boy kept his head down the entire time as he still didn't want to accept it. His father, the mammal who was always there for him and would always look up to, gone.

The only thing that kept him from lashing out were the continuing and smooth sound of the bells. " _Ding… ding… ding… ding…"_

* * *

" _DING… DING… DING…!"_

Finnick gasped as he had just awoken from the loud sounds of the large bell ringing at the bell tower just down the street. He groaned, as he got out of bed to close the window.

 _"_ _I knew I was forgetting to do something before I got into bed tonight."_ Finnick thought, as he sighed. _"I hate bad dreams..."_

He thought the best way to go back to sleep would be getting a glass of water from the washroom. But even after getting his glass and taking a few sips, he realized it wasn't really doing much. He thought while he was taking the time trying to fall back asleep, he could take a closer look at some of Z's mammals with the files he stole from Judy's apartment.

 _"_ _Who would have thought it'd be the rabbit to have all the information I need on these guys?"_ Finnick thought.

He began skimming through all of the files when he came across two which seemed to interest him. One was the boss of the criminal organization of weapon manufacturing Z, but more commonly known to the public as Zamiel stripes. The other one was a leopard with the name of Richard Panniston, which caught his eye seeing as he was the only one of the other mammals he looked at who was arrested already due to possessions of weaponry.

 _"_ _Hmm, this Richard guy might be of pretty good use if I want to send a message to Z as well."_ Finnick thought. _"And then we got Zamiel here who apparently has a used to be wife and a kid as well, who would have thought…"_

"Who would have thought…" Finnick murmured.

* * *

June 12th, 2017, present time

Nick and Judy both remembered from last time they were in the abandoned office building that Finnick was keeping Francine on the fourth floor, so they thought it was as good of a place as any to start with. Once they made their way up to the fourth floor, they went over to the same room he kept her in as they immediately noticed it was closed.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Finnick had already locked it from the inside." Nick said.

"Looks like we're going to have to use force on this one then." Judy said. "On the count of three, I'll kick the door open and you run inside to lock onto the target."

"Got it."

"One…"

Nick and Judy began to get into their ready stances.

"Two…" Judy continued, as both of them took their guns out of their pockets and pointing it at the door. "THREE!" Judy shouted as she kicked the door wide open, only to see what both of them feared it wouldn't have to come down to. In front of them right now was Finnick himself behind the zebra Francine who was still tied to the chair, as he had his gun out already pointed at her head.

"ZPD, DROP THE WEAPON NOW!" Judy shouted.

 **"** **I'd prefer I didn't** ** _officer_** **."** Finnick replied with his voice changing collar and hoodie still on. **"Oh I see, you two ratted me out to the cops didn't you?!"**

"No it's _nothing_ like that Finnick!" Nick shouted back. "It's just that we have a pretty good picture on what's going to happen if the swat team comes in to deal with your matter."

 **"** **Oh so now it's** ** _my_** **matter now huh Nick, is that how this is supposed to be?** Finnick questioned. **"Because the last time I recall, Judy said we were all in this together and that we he to think of a way around all of this mess."**

"That may very well be Finnick, but what you're doing here right now isn't justifiable to that claim whatsoever!" Judy disagreed. " _You_ made the decision of shooting a mammal, as well as kidnapping another mammal without consulting with us in the first place!"

 **"** **I never saw a point in asking."** Finnick admitted. **"I knew exactly what your answers would have been.** ** _'Oh Finnick, you shouldn't be doing any of that stuff because it's illegal and it's not the right thing to do'."_** He said mimicking the voice of Judy. **"It's the same stuff I've been hearing from you guys ALL THE TIME, AND IT'S STILL NEVER GOTTEN US ANYWHERE!"**

"Enough Finnick, drop the weapon now or we'll have no choice but to send in the swat team." Nick threatened.

 **"** **You better not."** Finnick warned. **"If either of you speak with anyone on that radio of yours, you won't have to worry about sending Francine out of here alive."**

"Then I guess we won't have to worry about thinking the same for you." Judy said. "You know how this is going to play out Finnick, if you shoot her then we're going to have to shoot at you."

 **"** **Well then maybe I'll just have to take you up on that offer."** Finnick said. **"Sure I may die and if there really is a hell I'll probably be going there, but at least I'll be taking a piece of Z with me!"**

"Come on Finnick, you know inside that this isn't what you want." Nick said, still trying to convince Finnick. "If you can just come back to the station and plead your case with Z and his entire crew, you can get out of this. We can _all_ get out of this I can promise you that, and Z will be rotting away his remaining years in jail."

Finnick thought about it. **"What if I don't want to do that Nick?"** He asked. **"I've lost enough already in my life and this zebra just takes the last bit of it away. My father died from a car accident when I was little, and now I hear my mother has now been killed by a criminal organization I'm forced to work for and they expect me to just accept it?! I'm not interested in going to the police for this Nick, not until I've evened the score."**

"Look Finnick, we get how much you want to see Z pay for what he has done to you and all of us, but wanting something too badly can change you into something you're not." Judy explained.

 **"** **You're the one to talk Judy."** Finnick shot back. **"You yourself have caused nothing but problems to all of us. It's because of you your neighbor Bucky, Nick's mother, and Clawhauser are all dead! You know why? BECAUSE YOU NEVER THINK! You just act out something thinking it's going to work when really you have no idea what you're up against."**

"We've _all_ had our shares of mistakes Finnick, don't start pointing fingers at Judy as if she's really the bad mammal in the room right now." Nick said, defending Judy.

 **"** **Tch."** Finnick said trying to shrug it off. **"That reminds me actually Nick, if this all somehow does work out and I let Francine here go while being taken into custody, and telling the ZPD every line of information about Z and his crew, do you even realize what that means?"**

"What are you getting at now Finnick?" Judy asked.

 **"** **Well if I** ** _were_** **to tell them, that doesn't mean I can just leave you guys and Danny out of it all either."** Finnick replied. **"I'd have to tell them what all of us, yes including Clawhauser, have done with this business. Now I have a pretty good feeling you guys have already had this thought before and know what will also happen to us all once I tell them."**

Judy and Nick then looked at each other with concerned faces.

"Well then I suppose we're just going to have to face the consequences then aren't we?" Judy asked.

 **"** **You just don't get it do you Judy?"** Finnick asked. **"It doesn't matter where we go or what happens to us after this. Z will always get what he wants. Take that tiger Damien for example. He survived the Cliffside Asylum ambush and was put into witness protection, but Z still ended up silencing him anyways. I mean if that's true, then how do we know he won't know a few mammals to get us while we're in or out of prison?"**

"What are you saying then Finnick?" Nick asked. "You think you can just easily walk away from this? We're all out of options and the swat team is about to come through the doors any minute now!"

Just then, sudden movements started coming from the unconscious Francine who was still tied up on the chair.

 _"_ _Wha… what is this…?"_ Francine mumbled. "W-wait a minute, you two again?!" She said shouting at Nick and Judy. "HELP, HELP SOMEONE GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Ma'am, ma'am it's okay we're with the ZPD this time!" Judy shouted trying to calm Francine down. "If you can just stay still and say nothing, I promise we will get you out of there in no time."

 **"** **Oh is that so?"** Finnick asked. **"You seem to be filled with over-confidence at the moment if that's what you think Judy."**

"No, I'm just pointing out with clear-cut instructions on how to _not_ get out of this place in a damn body bag!" Judy yelled back.

Francine continued breathing heavily while realizing she had a gun pointed right behind her head. "I… I just want to see my little girl one more time…"

"Don't you go on saying that like it's inevitable Francine!" Nick shouted, as he was trying to keep her from losing hope. "Now listen Finnick, for like the billionth time now, can you please just lower the gun from her head?"

Finnick began to run out of ideas on convincing them to let him go, which made Judy and Nick react more mad towards his delayed thinking.

"Anytime now Finnick." Judy asked.

Nick knew he wasn't going to put the gun down unless he did something drastic. "That's it Finnick, I didn't want it to come to this, but you leave me no choice. I'm giving you to the count of three, otherwise we have to put you down!"

Finnick now began to panic in his mind. **"DON'T YOU DARE NICK!"**

"3!" Nick shouted ignoring Finnick's request. "2!"

 **"** **O-okay hold on a second, just give me some time to process this for a moment at the very least!"** Finnick requested.

"1!" Nick continued.

Finnick knew now he had no choice but to drop the gun. He understood how hard it was for someone like him to surrender and obey Nick's commands, but at the same time it just wasn't worth it. As he was about to lower his gun, a voice on Nick's radio suddenly came in.

 _"_ _Wilde this is Bogo, why haven't you reported in yet about what's inside?"_ Bogo asked on the radio.

Nick took out the radio from his pocket while still keeping his gun locked on Finnick. "Bogo this is Nick, we were still looking until we came across something you might want to see."

 _"_ _We'll be sending in the swat team then immediately."_ Bogo said. _"It's been ten minutes first of all, and secondly if what you say is true then I would want some backup in there to take a look at it just in case."_

 _"_ _Oh shoot, they're coming in…"_ Nick thought. "Wait listen Bogo, that won't be necessary because we've already got-!" Nick said before realizing Bogo turned his radio off. "Do you hear that Finnick? They're coming, which mean you need to drop the gun now and get on your knees, or they won't be taking it as lightly as we are right now!"

Judy's ears began to twitch as she started hearing footsteps coming from the entrance door. "They're coming inside the building as we speak now Finnick, it's only a matter of time before they begin to check this floor now."

Finnick was still speechless as his mind was now going crazy through the thought of tasting multiple pieces of lead possibly going through his body from the ZPD. But aside from that and still continuing to, he didn't want to give in to letting Z carry on with his life of hell to the city without losing something personal himself. Back and forth he slightly moved his gun up and down still torn between the two decisions he had to make in fast timing.

"It sounds like most of them are only right under this floor now Finnick, so lower the gun _right now_ before things get too ugly." Judy stated.

Just then, they heard the door to the stairs on their floor smash open.

"Finnick this is the last time I'm going to ask you this, _Put down the gun._ " Nick ordered once more, as they heard the swat closing in on the room. "FINNICK FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, JUST LOWER THE GUN ALREADY!" He shouted.

"LOWER THE GUN NOW FINNICK!" Judy shouted with Nick.

But by the time they finished their shouting at Finnick, the SWAT team was only a few steps away from the door. Once they were right behind Nick and Judy's feet, both of them understood now there was nothing more they could do. Whatever happens next, it's going to be Finnick's choice for what is on the line with himself.

 _"_ _Freeze, put your paws up in the air and get on the ground, or we won't hesitate to shoot!"_ A SWAT mammal said with his helmet and mask on. _"This is your only warning sir, lower the gun off your hostage or we will shoot you!"_

Finnick began to shake now as if he was covered in nothing but snakes slithering around him.

 _"_ _DROP THE WEAPON NOW!"_ The SWAT mammal said still trying to force him to drop it.

Finnick had been shaking non-stop for the last minute until he oddly make a sudden stop. Without shaking anymore, he turned his head towards Nick and sighed.

 **"** **I've said this before… and this is the last time I will say it."** Finnick said calmly. **"It's either us… or Z."**

Finnick then raised his gun toward Francines head as Nick's eyes widened. "NO WAIT DON'T DO IT-!"

"BANG!"

Blood then sprayed over the walls and towards Nick and Judy after witnessing Finnick shoot Francine straight in the head. Finnick then finally dropped his gun and took a big exhale after knowing what was about to come next.

 _"_ _FIRE!"_ The SWAT mammal commanded.

"BAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAMBAM!"

All rifles were then shot at the same time towards the same mammal, as Finnick had been shot multiple times throughout his entire body until he dropped to the floor still. Both Nick and Judy were in shock after what they had just witnessed before them. They may have seen similar sightings with Z and his crew, but this was something they were never going to get used to.

Nick seemed to have more of a shock than anyone else in the room. Finnick, one of his best friends in the whole world ever since he was a young teen, shoots a mammal in the head and is then returned the favour by getting shot at himself right in front of him. He thought he could be able to convince his own friend into not pulling the trigger, but after seeing a gruesome sight such as that he started to question if he really knew anyone at all the same way.

 _"_ _Damn it, what the hell happened in here between you two and this hooded freak?!"_ The SWAT mammal asked Nick and Judy while taking his helmet and mask off, as they were still frozen in shock. "Bogo said you would be coming in here to look for any danger and why didn't you even radio us in earlier?!"

"He- he threatened to shoot her if we radioed in anything to any of the officers outside. "Nick replied jittering. "W-we couldn't risk it. I mean we tried to stall him until you guys got here but…"

" _Jesus…"_ The SWAT mammal mumbled. "Alright, let's just get out of here and let the paramedics take the bodies away. There doesn't seem to be a point in checking for a pulse anymore."

" _Yes sir officer Mchorn."_ Another SWAT mammal replied, as most of them began walking out of the room.

Judy eventually got out of her shocked state, but she noticed Nick still being unable to keep his eye off of Finnick's body. "Nick…" Judy said holding onto his arm. "We need to get out of here, we don't want to make it seem any more suspicious on us than it already is. Remember, nobody still knows who's behind that hood yet."

Nick then slowly turned his head around with his eyes glued to the floor, as he slowly nodded to Judy.

All the animals in the building then walked out of the door of the abandoned building after finding no other traces of other mammals inside it. Forensics and paramedics immediately came swarming into the building after getting the all clear sign from the SWAT, while a few of them stayed behind to make sure they, including Nick and Judy were not harmed from the gunshot sounds heard from outside.

"Here, take this." A doe paramedic said to Judy and Nick who were sitting on the back of an ambulance van, as she was handing each of them a wet rag to wipe the spray of blood off their fur.

"Thanks." Judy said silently, as she took one the rags and began cleaning herself with Nick doing the same. Judy looked beside Nick and sure enough, he seemed to be looking down as well. "There wasn't anything else we could have done Nick."

"I know." Nick said with his head still down. "But even for some mammals when knowing that fact, they still can't help but feel like there really was something they could've done. It's only natural to think about it like that really."

"Yea." Judy said nodding.

"It's just his last words though that got to me." Nick brought up. "'It's either us or Z'."

"What do you think it meant?"

"I don't know, but I assume he was just saying it like one of those 'only one will remain in the end', or 'kill or be killed' kind of deals." Nick replied. "But I don't know, he might not be wrong."

Judy got a bit of chills when she heard Nick say that. "W-what do you mean Nick?"

Nick turned his head to face Judy, only to see the fear in her eyes after what he said. Nick decided the best way to move on from this was thinking good thoughts, not any thoughts which would most likely haunt someone in their sleep.

"Y-you know what, it's probably nothing." Nick said. "But you know Finnick… Finnick made his decision, and yea you're right there really was nothing we could have done about it. It's not like we choose who gets to live or die."

"Listen Nick, if you need to leave, just leave." Judy suggested. "I know how much of a friend Finnick was to you all these years and not that I'm a psychologist or anything, but if you show too much emotion already then some may seem to find it weird. Well, not that it's odd or anything considering most mammals would probably be in that state when they see someone get-"

"I get it, I get it Judy." Nick assured. "I mean hell, if I could I would be smashing things all over the place and _raining,_ not dripping, _RAINING_ tears everywhere _._ But you're probably right, staying in this state for both of us will only get more unnecessary trouble on us than we've already got. We should catch the next train and _try_ to close our eyes tonight if we can when we get back."

"Sounds like a-"

 _"HOPPS, WILDE!"_ A voice shouted in the distance.

Both Nick and Judy turned their heads to see who was shouting at them and sure enough, it was Bogo. " _What should we do?"_ Judy whispered to Nick.

 _"_ _Just play it cool like we always do."_ Nick whispered back.

"What in god's name happened in that building?" Bogo asked. "I ordered you both to do a quick check of the building just to make sure there's nothing up someone's sleeve, but what happens? We get a fennec fox who shoots one of the only possible witnesses we got on this case, and then himself by the swat. We have nobody to bring in for questioning now on for of this!"

"I hate to disagree with you sir, but we tried to talk the fennec out of lowering the gun on the hostage until the swat team came in." Judy explained. "He or she must have been pressured into doing what they wanted to do, so they must have done it before we could get to them."

"What about this fennec, did he or she say anything to you that may have been useful?" Bogo asked.

"Well, most of the talk between us was just persuading and threatening back and forth." Nick answered. "But an interesting thing he did say before he pulled the trigger was, 'it's either us or Z'."

"Z?" Bogo wondered. "Who is this 'Z' mammal he spoke of?"

Nick and Judy shrugged. "We don't know, but other than that chief that's all we could clearly understand from the incident." Nick said. "If you're looking for more insight on it, you should probably ask Mchorn since he and his guys were there when it went down."

"Perhaps it's one thing to look into, along with the odd mention of this Z character." Bogo said. "However, I'm more concerned at the moment about you two. I sent you in there to do a quick sweep of possible things to stay cautious of, but what do I get? Two more mammals shot dead like we don't have enough of those as it is."

"Sir, there wasn't anything we could have done which would've stopped that fennec from pulling the trigger." Judy said defensively. "It wasn't possible to shoot from our position even if we wanted to either since we didn't want to risk the chance of accidentally shooting the hostage."

"You should have called for backup then before getting into things you both are not capable of doing alone so it seems." Bogo said. "Jeez, I mean what do you think Mayor Lionheart will have to say about all this? He's already got enough of the press on his tail for incidents such as this. Do you have any idea now how the city is going to react because of what happened here?"

"We're sorry it turned out this way, but we had no control over this guy in any possible way, and neither could the swat team have for that matter." Judy claimed.

Just then, more shouting was heard from the distance as it seems someone was trying to call to Bogo. "I'll discuss this with you both on a better occasion than this." He said, as he walked away and over to the officer shouting his name. "What have you got for me Snarlov?"

"Officers and paramedics just finished up with taking the bodies out of the building, but they did come across some things you might want to take a look at." Snarlov replied. "Follow me."

Snarlov and Bogo then walked over to the plastic bags where evidence from the scene was being kept. Snarlov took one of the bags from the bin and opened it, showing the hoodie Finnick was wearing.

"So it's a hoodie, what about it?" Bogo asked.

"It's not just any hoodie chief." Snarlov said. "Take a closer look at the fabric used for this hoodie, as well as the drawing on it. Not only that, this one appears to be a faced up hoodie as well."

It only took a moment for Bogo to remember the similarities from another incident. "Hold on a minute, isn't this the same type of hoodie we found when we searched Clawhauser's apartment?"

"Precisely sir." Snarlov said. "To only prove it more, we seem to have found a collar on him only matching the same collar we found in his apartment at well."

"So are you saying it's safe to assume this fennec fox was also a part of the mysterious five?"

"Well, the evidence pointing to it is substantial so yes, as of now we're suspecting he was."

"Oh so it was a he." Bogo realized. "Do we have a positive ID yet on who this fennec fox was?"

"Not yet, but forensics will most likely have an ID from the fur by tomorrow."

"So if what you're saying is true, then that means there's only three of them left now." Bogo said. "We already know Clawhauser was one of them, and now this fennec fox responsible for this seems to be another. Did you find anything else at the scene that may relate to any of the three we still don't know of yet?"

"Not yet Chief." Snarlov replied. "All we know are rumors on the streets saying the drawings on their hoodies were a headset, a carrot and a pawpsicle. I do believe when the rumor started, they said something about a pizza slice being another one of them, which is in fact the same drawing on the hoodie the mammal was wearing."

"Hmm." Bogo said thinking about it. "Well not much more we can do from here now, It's time we packed up for the night. We can discuss more on what we found here tomorrow but in the meantime, let's get some rest."

* * *

Later that night

 _"_ _Woah, woah hang on a second, huh?"_ Danny asked, as Nick was talking with him on the phone back at his apartment. _"What do you mean Finnick is dead?!"_

"I know Danny, I'm sorry you had to hear it this way from me but yes it's true." Nick said. "We tried to talk him out of shooting her, but things just didn't seem to have gone in our favour this time."

 _"_ _You do realize how Z is going to take this don't you?"_ Danny asked. _"He's going to rip our guts out for this!"_

"No, I don't think so." Nick disagreed. "And if he plans to, whenever he wants to kidnap us or follow his guys not on our own will, me and Judy will explain the situation and how it went down. He may still want to be ticked about it, but it's not like he'll pick up his revolver and shoot another one of us… At least not to my knowledge of him."

" _But still though, Finnick…"_ Danny said saddened. _"We've already lost Clawhauser, but now losing Finnick is just going to make it more complicated for us. So now what then, is it just us three left to do the deals?"_

"It seems like it." Nick replied. "It doesn't matter if there's even one of us left. As long as there's still someone around to deliver, Z won't care."

 _"_ _Oh great, just another reason to not think about sleeping tonight."_

"Look, I just came back from cleaning the rest of the blood off my face if _you_ think you won't be having a good sleep tonight." Nick said, as he hung up the phone.

"This is becoming a recurring thing for you to be coming back this late Nick." Amber said coming from the kitchen. "The weird thing is your shifts end during the evening, not three in the morning. Need a sip of water?"

"Pass." Nick replied depressingly.

Amber sighed. "Look I don't mean to eavesdrop, but I heard what you were talking about with your friend on the phone just now.

Nick rolled his eyes. "It doesn't matter really, you would have heard about it on the news in the morning anyways."

"No, not in _that_ kind of way." Amber corrected. "What I meant was, how are you holding up from it?"

"How does it look like I'm holding up from it Amber?" Nick asked aggravated.

"I've seen attitude like that from you before Nick." Amber mentioned. "Let me just say for the record, it has done diddily squat for you in the past, not to mention you always get so crabby about it."

"You still continue to make it sound like you've known me for years Amber, well you know what you just haven't." Nick argued.

"It's hard _not_ to notice when you're around Nick!" Amber shouted. "It's been like this non-stop the way I've seen it ever since I've stepped foot into here."

"Well some mammals like yourselves would always use that psychology trick on me when they want to win an argument." Nick said. "But guess what Amber? _You_ don't know anything about me or my life, you haven't seen what has happened to me in the past or even the fact that you've never asked, and you don't know what it's like to see a friend from your childhood get taken away from you!"

"Yes I do." Amber countered, as Nick stayed silent. "I remember one of my best friends, an antelope named Chad. I knew him ever since both of us were three, mostly because we lived next to each other at the time. We don't exactly seem like the kind of animals who would get along, but trust me our friendship was a bond that was unbreakable. We shared everything together, we played together, and we were always there for each other. Time went on, and both of us might not have made the smartest decisions in life, one of them was joining Lenny's gang. And sooner or later the time came when we met up with you five and lost most of his gang, but to me they were also good friends the time I knew them for. The next time came when you made us flee the city just in case if Z was going to find and kill us. Do you remember when I told you I heard about the disappearances of my friends in the newspaper?"

"Yes…" Nick said silently.

"I lied." Amber admitted, leaving Nick with a surprised face. "I ended up going with Chad on that one because he was one of the only mammals left I could trust out there in the world. Both of us stayed together in a safe house not too far from a small town in Carminton. After a while both of us actually considered making a life in that house. It was nice, peaceful and we wouldn't have to worry about any danger approaching us. Heh we… we even considered marriage before sharing a kiss that time also and you know what, I was actually going to do it."

"But then… I'm guessing Z's mammals-"

"Yes." Amber interrupted. "It was almost midnight when I heard the sounds of glass breaking from the windows. Chad went downstairs to take a look, but then a few moments later it seemed like a fight was happening downstairs. I went down there to check on him, but only to see him die right in front of me as the tiger slit his throat… I remember looking back at that and seeing him mumble the word 'run' to me. Luckily the tiger hadn't seen me yet, so I grabbed my emergency backpack and jumped out the window to jump inside one of the trucks driving on the highway until I was far enough from the house. But Nick my point is, don't act like you're the only mammal who's been through hell and back because you're _not."_ She said walking away from him.

"Amber…" Nick said feeling guilty now, as Amber stopped to look at Nick. Nick then went over to her and put his arms around her, hugging her. "I'm sorry." He said silently.

Amber chuckled. "Well at least you admit it Wilde."

"But you know it's just…"

"I get it Nick, you need some time to think about it and really, I don't blame you." Amber said. "But I would prefer it if you didn't end up lashing out on me whenever it happens."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Amber nodded back. "Well I think I'll just watch a bit more TV before I fall asleep again, so try to get as much sleep as you can." She said as she was walking back towards the couch.

"Well I'll do what I can." Nick said, as he began walking towards the door to his bedroom. But as he was about to open it, he couldn't help but feel like something was wrong in his mind, aside from losing another one of his friends to what Z's put them through. Nick then walked back over towards the couch Amber was resting on curious about something. "Hey um… So what was it exactly you were planning to watch?" He asked rubbing his neck.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 36, Dishonest But Not Disloyal**


	37. Dishonest But Not Disloyal

**Chapter 36: Dishonest But Not Disloyal**

February 21st, 2017, the day during the interviews with Z

"Mr. Finnick Elgo Masto, that's your full name right?" Z asked, as Finnick was walking in through the door.

"Someone seems to be a little snoopy of other's privacy." Finnick replied, as he took a seat close to Z. "Now I'm going to cut to the chase here and ask where Danny, Judy, Nick and Clawhauser are?"

"Well you see Mr. Masto, most interviews are meant to be between one mammal, and not five of you altogether otherwise it'd just make it more complicated." Z replied. "I mean there's that, and it's known to most animals they'd prefer to tell their little secrets in private. But don't worry, I'm already aware of your little secrets."

Finnick began to get a little nervous when he heard that sentence. "W-what sort of secrets do you think you're referring to?"

"The fact that you robbed multiple convenience stores ever since your teen years." Z answered. "Wait don't tell me, was it money troubles?"

"I-" Finnick said pausing for a moment to think about it. "There's no proof on me that I was responsible for those."

"Yes, well funny you should mention it because some of my mammals _did_ actually come across some interesting materials at your mother and father's old house." Z informed. "By the way, my condolences to your mother's death, I never meant for anything like sickness to happen to her but you know…"

"Just quit making this harder than it needs to be Z." Finnick requested.

"Right sorry, um back to the materials." Z said while pulling out a bag from his briefcase. "Oh and Richard, it's time to get it out." He called out.

"Get what out?" Finnick asked.

Richard then came over to where Z and Finnick were sitting and placed the machine on the table.

"This is a lie detector." Z answered.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Finnick said.

"Hey, it's the best way to prove whether or not you're screwing with us when I'm asking you about something, which may most likely be from your past or general information itself." Z replied. "Now then, do you recognize this knife?" He said sliding over a knife towards Finnick, as the wires for the lie detector were place on him.

"I-I… can't say that I have."

"He's lying." Richard said.

Finnick gave Richard a dirty look. "Up yours Richard-"

"Now now Finnick, there's no need to have a hissy fit about the truth you're not willing to spit out." Z said. "But on the contrary, those machines were built to detect lies and it's telling me you're lying."

Finnick got a little frustrated from having him pinned to the corner especially from Z, but he wasn't able to deny the fact from Z. "Okay fine, so I may have seen it before big deal." Finnick confessed. "What does that prove about anything? For all you know, it could just be something used to cut up tomatoes."

"He's still lying." Richard pointed out.

Finnick began to get agitated with Richard as he hit his paw hard on the table. "PUT A SOCK IN IT ALREADY YOU SPOTTED-"

"ENOUGH FINNICK." Z said loudly. "Now as I said before, this thing never lies. But it doesn't matter, we printed a few photos off the internet before we went snooping at your old house. We saw the culprit had a certain blue striped knife from the company Sharpeez, and sure enough it was the same knife we found stuck to the bottom end of an old bed."

"You really went through that much trouble just to look at a knife I had?" Finnick asked, as Z nodded in return. "Oh so what is this then, some kind of a blackmail technique you're planning to pull on me or something?"

"No, no, no of course not… even though I never actually thought of it like that yet." Z replied. "This is just proof to understand more of what kind of a mammal you really are under that fur of yours."

"So I hit a few stores back in my day, big deal mammals have done more than that for less."

"Funny you should mention that." Z said, as he pulled out a file from his suitcase. "Because I've got one case here where the same knife was used for a robbery from the otter owner where he refused to give the money to you. So what happens? You bash his teeth in against a pipe and take the money anyways without making sure he's okay."

"Okay, that time is totally justifiable." Finnick said. "He just… he wouldn't give it up, so I ended up threatening him a bit more with the knife until he took a bat out from behind his desk and tried to knock me out cold with it."

"So you thought hitting his face it with a pipe you busted until all his teeth were out was a good idea to you?"

"Listen, you don't know what sort of a fight it was between me and him so don't go making the wrong assumptions here."

Z shrugged. "Fair enough. But you know what, enough about your past, I'd like to know more about your opinions on all of this."

"I know it sounds pretty specific to you, but you're going to have to give me a more definite question than that."

"Hmm, why don't we start off with the main ones then?" Z suggested. "Like say… animals. What are your thoughts on your other four companions, or friends or whatever you'd call them."

"You really want my honest opinion on them?" Finnick asked. "Alright, I don't trust them."

Z cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "Really? What gave you that opinion on all of them?"

Finnick thought about it for a moment to put that thought together in his head. "Hmm, well let me put it this way. They're too afraid to do what sometimes would be referred to as 'the right thing to do'."

"Hmm interesting…" Z said, as he was writing some notes down about what Finnick was saying. "But, can you please explain to me what is it mainly that you feel the right thing to do is?"

"Sometimes during one of those 'it's either him or me sort of moments'." Finnick replied. "I know one day all four, well I suppose excluding Clawhauser of my companions as you say, are going to get a choice on having to take a life if they want to save another. It's exactly what I did with that lion on Claw Street, Danny would have been beaten to death if I didn't kill him."

"And let me guess, you think that when the time actually does come for them, they won't be able to pull the trigger?"

"It doesn't take a genius to assume that." Finnick said. "But if that day ever does come, I will hate to know and understand they won't have my backs. That time with Danny was one thing. But if it ever happens again and I see then standing there and not doing what should be done, then maybe I'll just have to do the same. That is, unless if I'm only trying to save myself."

* * *

June 15th, 2017, three days after the incident at the abandoned business building, present time

Nick didn't want this day to come for another long, long time, but today was sadly that day. The day of Finnick's funeral was thankfully a sunny one, but it's not like Nick really cared about the weather in the first place. This ended up being a private funeral for only mammals who knew him personally, due to most of the animals in Zootopia thinking of him as filth due to his suspected work among the criminal weapons organization lurking in the city.

Judy and Danny did show up as well, but they were still as depressed as Nick was when they walked into the cemetery. They sat beside each other as the other few rows of mammals began to come to say a few prayers. The priest said a few of them, but no one volunteered to go up to say anything about Finnick. Nick assumed it was because it would most likely be looked down upon to share anything good about a murderer, so he also kept his thoughts to himself.

Another hour or two went by and the coffin was soon lowered into the ground, along with the dirt put on top of it. Most of the mammals had already left by then, but Judy and Danny couldn't help but notice Nick standing over his grave.

"It's hard on all of us to take it all in Nick." Judy said, as she and Danny were walking over to Nick.

"Yea, I know." Nick said. "But no it's just that… Finnick now lost that bet we made to each other."

"What was the bet?" Danny asked.

"That I'd go before him."

Both Judy and Danny looked at him curious. "What got you two to come up with that bet?" Judy asked.

Nick shrugged. "Well to put it in short, we had a lot to drink that night."

All three laughed. "Yea I'm sure you did." Judy said. "But hey, at least he was put beside his father."

"Edward Portilamo Masto, 1951-1987…" Nick said, as he read Finnick's father's tombstone.

"I read his file the other day just to see if Finnick was telling the truth about his dad's cause of death, and sure enough it was the real deal." Judy brought up. "Edward Masto was involved in a road accident in Savanna central on the Bristol Mack Bridge. Apparently he was in a hurry to get home since he got surprise baseball tickets for his son that night, but one of his tires popped unexpectedly due to the speed he was going, and due to a late check-up for his car. He tried to stable his car to go back on the road, but the car was already going so fast it broke the cement fence put on the bridge and he ended up falling 250 feet to the large rocks at the very bottom."

"Damn, that sounds pretty tragic…" Danny said.

"We should have done something like this for Clawhauser as well." Nick said. "I mean, just the thought of losing someone and seeing their body get dragged away to some desert at a random hole in the ground..."

"We will find him and make it right for him when the time comes Nick." Judy said trying to cheer him up. "But as of now, we need to focus on making this all right."

"All right?" Danny asked. "How in any way are we going to correct any of what we've had to go through this who time? It's just us three now Judy, Finnick and Clawhauser won't be coming back to save our tails this time."

"Fixing mistakes take time Danny." Judy said. "And especially with a mammal like Z, this is not going to be like turning on the kitchen light."

"Z is most likely going to be the least of our worries for the next week or so as it is." Nick said. "He must be taking it hard right now after the loss of his ex- wife."

"Well no matter what, Z will always have the upper paw on us." Danny said. "We thought he'd never find out about the things we've done behind his back, but sure enough he did. Not just that, he was able to figure out something from all of us very few have figured out already by now about our pasts."

"Hey that reminds me, don't you two think it's time you told me and the other mammal beside you what their secret was which Z ended up finding out about?" Judy asked Nick and Danny.

"What makes you so interested in it?" Danny asked.

"Why do you not want to share it Danny?" Judy asked. "You really think we'll tell someone else about it? How do we know it's not something that may be connected to our current problems?"

"Trust me, it isn't." Danny replied.

"But it isn't fair if you know my secret and you are refusing to say your own-"

"Alright, alright fine, I'll tell you!" Danny shouted. "But you two better promise you don't say a _word_ of this to anyone else, otherwise I'll never trust you two with anything again."

"We promise." Nick said.

It took Danny a moment to tell his secret before exhaling deeply and saying it. "I… Paralyzed the lower half of a mammals body."

Both Judy and Nick's eyes widened as they both stared at him in shock. "You-you did what Danny?" Judy asked.

"Look I was young, I didn't know anything back then!" Danny shouted in defense. "I'll just start from the top. So me and my brother loved to hit targets when we were young. First we went to leap biting with some sacks, then we threw sharp sticks as if they were spears at the trees and bushes, then we soon made our own slingshots and ended up firing a few at some cans and bottles."

"Maybe that's why officer Wolford joined the ZPD, because he was always good at getting his targets." Nick said to Judy, as they giggled a little.

Danny rolled his eyes and continued with the story. "So on our birthday, our dad gave us our own BB rifle seeing as how he always saw us playing with targets, but not with an actual weapon. And WOW, that thing was fun to use on our targets since it always made it a hell of a lot easier for us to hit them at a very far distance. Sometimes we could even hit a bull's eye five times in a row at least seven metres away."

"Wow." Nick said impressed. "So you two must have been quite the aimers back then, then."

"Yea, we sure were…" Danny said. "But now that we had that rifle, just shooting at cardboard didn't really feel… like much of a way of entertaining ourselves with. So one day, I went up to my brother and threw him a pitch that said something like, 'hey, do you want to make target shooting a little more interesting?' Naturally he said yes, but when I told him the part about doing it on real animals, he immediately bailed out on the idea. Looking back on that day, I couldn't blame him for saying no."

"Woah hang on a second." Judy interrupted. "You actually thought shooting with a BB rifle at someone was a good idea?"

"I was a teenager Judy, I didn't know what the hell I was thinking for at least a quarter of the time!" Danny shouted. "Anyways, so even if my brother said no, it didn't stop me from doing it solo. On a sunny afternoon, I went on a roof of a tall building which was a pretty good place to go to since no one could see you very well, and it gave me more room to shoot at. But even as a stupid teen, I knew my boundaries so I decided to aim torso to the bottom. But let me tell you, every time I took a shot it never missed. I'll admit, it was pretty funny seeing some of the reactions from most of the mammals down below, especially the times I got them right on the tail."

"You are so sick Danny." Judy said.

Danny decided to ignore what she just said. "So the evening came around and I thought I should get one more mammal before I called it a night. So I saw this doe mother and daughter walking by and I thought it'd be a little funny to see the girl yelp right in front of her mother. But I didn't want to seriously hurt her, so I just shot the small little ball at her leg. But she seemed to get a bigger reaction to it than I thought because before I knew it, she was screaming and yelling to her mother while running around aimlessly. At first I thought it was funny, but then I saw her running onto the road… then another car nearby came driving on the same road and, and… it was too late for her to stop the car in time."

"What is wrong with you?" Judy asked.

"I was a bloody teenager Judy, teenagers make dumb decisions all the time, this just happened to be one of those times!" Danny shouted back.

"Did you ever turn yourself in?" Nick asked.

"I was never willing to face what was most likely going to be down the road if I did." Danny answered. "I would rather take my gun Z's crew gave me and lodge it in my brain, than spend ten years or more in prison."

"Is there anyone else you spoke to about this Danny?" Judy asked.

"Just my brother Matthew." Danny replied. "I didn't know who else to go to about it and I would've went completely loco if I never told at least _somebody_ about it. At that time he was planning to be a police officer, so he knew a few techniques from the TV he watched on how to get away with it, but not before yelling at me for a whole hour on stuff I already knew I shouldn't have done. We ended up getting my dad's hammer from his tool kit, busted the BB rifle into pieces and burnt it into ashes so no one would trace it back to me. When my father asked about its disappearance, we made up a story saying that it was stolen by some mammal we were ambushed by in an alleyway when we wanted to shoot at some trash cans."

"Did you ever even go to that girl to I don't know, cheer her up?" Nick asked.

"I've tried before, I don't know how many times because I lost count when I hit seven." Danny believed. "But I've learned the hard way that it isn't easy to start a chat with someone you accidentally paralyzed. Don't get the wrong idea of me though, yes I'll admit dishonesty may be one of my problems sometimes, but I am definitely not disloyal."

"Sometimes loyalty isn't going to be the same matter at stake compared to honesty Danny." Judy said. "You can say you're loyal to a company, but when you end up doing things without informing any of your higher ranks and especially when they find out about it, they'll say you can shove that loyalty right up your tail and walk out of the doors never coming back inside."

"But for Z's case, it's a matter of life or death." Nick said. "We saw what he would do to one of us if we don't end up being the most loyal out of the group, you can believe it when you remember how Clawhauser ended up because of that."

Danny sighed. "You're right, I understand the issues. But you know, no mammal out there is going to be born perfect. Sometimes we are who we are whether we like it or not."

"We get your drift Danny don't worry, we just need you to work out your problems for the time being, that's all." Judy said.

Just then, Nick's phone started ringing. He didn't seem too surprised to see who was phoning him. "I'm sorry guys but I got to take this." He said walking away. "It's just something I got to take care of at my place.

"Well what's the problem?" Judy asked.

"Nothing, it's just that Amber seems to have caught something in the past couple days and she's apparently too weak to get out of bed to retrieve some pills and a glass of water." Nick replied.

 _"_ _I totally think he's fibbing."_ Danny whispered to Judy.

Judy shrugged. " _Could be_. _But then again, he may really be but just not for that reason."_

"What do you mean?"

Judy chuckled. "It's nothing. But still, I think you're sick." She said, while walking away as well.

"I TOLD YOU, I WAS JUST A DUMB TEENAGER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Danny shouted to Judy.

* * *

June 29th, 2017, two weeks later

Zoe still hadn't seen her father come out of the kitchen for quite some time after he would come home from work. She wanted to comfort him, but she feared it would only make his attitude worse. Nevertheless, she couldn't blame him seeing as how his wife who was also her own mother had passed away. She herself was also in a pretty bad state after hearing the news about her mother, but after a while she got a little more worried on her own father after seeing him drink non-stop for the past few weeks now.

 _"_ _He's got to run out of alcohol eventually Zoe…"_ Zoe thought. _"But I still can't believe it about mom. Maybe he's still in denial as well. It's been a couple weeks already and he still hasn't been acting the same as usual, it's like he's all of a sudden showing his dark side around the house…"_

Sometimes she would go into the kitchen since she eventually got hungry only to see him lying face down on the table. But then the time came around to when they ran out of food to eat in the house. Zoe did ask her father about getting more groceries for the house, only to be yelled at by him and nearly forced to leave the kitchen soon after. She ended up getting money from her father's wallet and always ended up ordering pizza or going to a nearby fast food restaurant for meals now.

Before her mother died, she would always get a drive from her since her school was far from where she lived. But without even bothering to ask his father or no matter how early she woke up to go, she was always more than thirty minutes late. She hated it considering exams were just around the corner and all she had on her mind instead of studying was her parents.

Time after time and it was the same ordeal she had to deal with every day until finally, she decided she's had enough of it. It was morning time when she went out of her room and really saw what the house had become in the past couple weeks without any cleaning whatsoever from her father. Out of anger, she stormed into the kitchen and approached him.

"Okay, this has gone far enough dad!" Zoe shouted. "I haven't seen you go anywhere else other than this kitchen and your 'claim' of going to work whenever you go out. This needs to stop!"

"…." Z moaned, as he still seemed to be recovering from the drinks he had last night.

"My god, you should hear yourself right now if you weren't so into intoxicated." Zoe said, but with her father's face still lying on the table still. Zoe knew she had to go to extreme measures now, as she went over to her dad's ear and screamed. "WAKE UP!"

Her father's head then shot straight up so fast, he lost stability of the chair he was sitting on and fell to the ground. He quickly jumped back to reality as he saw his daughter standing in front of him while he was still on the floor.

"Zoe, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Z asked, angered she yelled in his ear.

"You drank yourself until you went unconscious again, it was the only way to get your attention." Zoe replied. "Listen dad, I get how much mom meant to you and trust me, I couldn't stop crying about it for the whole week ever since we learned the news that night. BUT YOU'RE DRINKING YOURSELF TO DEATH."

Z sighed as he slowly got back up. "Zoe, you obviously don't seem to understand anything about losing-"

"DON'T YOU DARE PULL THAT 'YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND' CRAP ON ME!" Zoe yelled. "I understand it perfectly dad. I understand how much mom meant to me and you, I understand your pain and my own, and I understand _perfectly_ that I'm now going to have to live out the rest of my life without a mother. But maybe it's _you_ who doesn't seem to understand the slightest bit of what I've been feeling from all of this!"

Z began to see his daughter's emotions from all of this after having ignored her for so long. "Look Zoe I'm having trouble with taking this in. I knew your mother for more than twenty years and I've never stopped loving her. But hearing about her passing, it's almost as if I'm hearing someone stole my heart, and I just can't live without my heart…"

"I know dad, but at the same time you seem to be forgetting what you still have, which also happens to be right in front of you."

Z looked up at her daughter's eyes and realized what he still had this entire time, family. He then slowly walked over to her and hugged her tightly, as a tear began to roll down his eye.

"I'm sorry sweetie…" Z said, trying to sound stabled. "I know I've been a horrible father to you. I was never there when you most likely needed it, and I probably don't even deserve to have someone as special as you in my life."

"Dad…" Zoe said silently with her father's arms still wrapped around her.

"I knew it straight from the start." Z confessed. "Ever since your mother told me we were going to have you, I… I didn't think I could do it! I knew who I was and what kind of a mammal I am, so I didn't want my own child growing up with a father like that!"

"… Is that why you two divorced?"

Z was a little surprised from that question at first, but figured for the greater good of his daughter, it was necessary to go along with that and not get too much into details. Because of that, he looked into Zoe's eyes and lightly nodded.

"We both thought it was the best for you." Z said. "During the time when we met, it was mostly just talk and cuddles."

"Too much information." Zoe said sliding her hoof in front of her father's face.

Z shook that thought off and continued. "But after we were married and started to share more about each other's life, she didn't take some of those… opinions very lightly. We then started to get into an argument about some of our personal problems from the past, and then said we were through the next day while taking you to your grandmother's place for the time being until she was able to get her own house."

"Well, I vaguely remember memories of that since it happened when I was so young." Zoe said. "What could you have argued about that was so bad she wanted to leave you?"

Z sighed as he placed his hoof on Zoe's shoulder. "Zoe, I'm only telling you this for your own good, and because I love you. My history in the past is best left not known about. I fear it is something you would never be able to comprehend."

Zoe felt a bit of a chilling vibe from what her father just told her. "W-what could possibly have happened to you in the past you would want to keep from me?" She asked.

 _"_ _Too many things to count."_ Z thought. "Zoe _…"_ He said, knowing his daughter was still wanting to know.

Zoe sighed. "Alright fine, if that's what it will take to get you back up on your feet again. But just for assurance dad, can you at least let me know if the day will ever come when you _will_ tell me?"

Z thought about it for a moment. "… If that day ever does come Zoe, I will be sure to let you know about it immediately."

Zoe put her hoofs around her waist while still trying to accept that thought. She then nodded to her her father. "Okay, fine."

Z smiled as he went over to Zoe to hug her again. "Oh honey, I knew you'd understand."

"Yea yea, no need to keep getting all sappy about it now dad." Zoe said. "But on another note, I just wanted to know if you ever bothered to take a look at your living room?"

"You mean _our_ living room now?" Z asked, implying to Zoe that she could stay here if she wanted to.

Zoe chuckled. "I guess so."

"Why, what's it look like?"

"You mean you don't even know?" Zoe asked. "It's filled with nothing but beer bottles and wrappers all over the place."

Z then walked over to the living room, only to realize when Zoe said they were all over the place, she didn't mean it figuratively. "Hey wait a minute, if you knew this place was such a big dump why didn't you clean it up yourself?"

"Exams take _lots_ of time to study in my grade if you plan on getting an 'A' in every one of them." Zoe replied.

"Oh, well good for you then, I think."

 _"_ _He seems to still have a lot to learn about raising a teenager…"_ Zoe thought.

"Wait, judging by the wrappers and plates here, how much food do we still have left?"

"None."

"None?!" Z shrieked. "Oh my god, have I been starving you this whole time?"

"You're lucky there's enough places close to here to keep my stomach going for two weeks."

"Oh thank heavens, because if you hadn't eaten in all those days I would've-" Z said, while realizing something. "Hold on a second, if you had to go to places around here to get food, then where exactly did you end up getting the money to pay for them?"

 _"_ _Darn it, I hoped I wouldn't have to have a conversation about this when he became conscious again…"_ Zoe thought. "Oh that reminds me dad, you may have to go to the bank to get a bit more money for your wallet…"

Z was a bit angered from what Zoe informed about his with his money, but knew he couldn't be mad at her right now. "Oh it's alright." Z chuckled. "And frankly I'm actually glad you used my money for it considering it would've made me feel even worse about myself if you had to use all of yours."

But as he continued talking with Zoe, his phone started to ring. When he checked to see who it was, he knew this was another private call he had to take.

"Who is it?" Zoe asked.

"Nobody, it's just some clients of mine I haven't spoken to in a couple weeks." Z replied. "I-I'm sorry honey but I got to take this one. But hey don't worry, as soon as I'm finished we're heading straight to the nearest supermarket."

Zoe giggled. "Alright sure!"

Z then walked into his bedroom again and closed the door, making sure Zoe couldn't overhear the conversation. "Grant for the third time now, I thought I told you not to contact me unless I _say_ you can contact me again."

 _"_ _I understood that perfectly sir, don't get me wrong on that."_ Grant said. _"Listen I know I should have informed you about this a couple days back but… somethings come up."_

* * *

Biggy seemed to feel like just another one of those lonely animals out there in Zootopia. His wife left _him_ as well, along with his two boys, and surprisingly it only seemed like things were going to get worse for him the more he stayed with Z and his criminal work. It was just another reason he wanted to stop Z from doing his crimes before his last breath came.

He thought when his family moved out, the bright side was that he would have less to worry about in his life. But he was wrong. Two days after she left him and took the kids, Biggy phoned her to discuss the financial and visiting parts of a divorce so he could at least continue to see them. Every day now, he worries something bad might happen to them if what the news says is true about fennecs shooting zebras in the head. But every day and still, he sucked it up and did what he had to do so there wouldn't be any further problems. It was necessary, but it didn't mean he still continued to like what he did.

It was night time and he had nothing better to do since he had no shift with Z that day, so he just ordered a box of pizza and laid on the couch while enjoying the ride of whatever was on TV at the moment. But right when he thought he would be staying on his comfortable position for the rest of the night, the doorbell rang.

Biggy groaned. _"Now of all times do I get someone ringing on my doorbell?"_ He thought.

He slowly got back up from the couch and walked over to the door. But just for a safety precaution, he checked the blinds to see who was waiting by the door on the other side. However when he looked, he couldn't even believe it himself when he saw who the mammal was. He then went over to his door to unlock and open to confirm it really was him, and sure enough it was.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." The mammal said.

Biggy then began to laugh. "I always wondered when the day would come when you'd be appearing in front of my doorstep again." He said. "But I assume you didn't come here just for a quick beer, right?"

The mammal shook his head. "You're the only mammal now I can go to so Z won't find out about me. He's already mad at me as it is, but when he finds out what I did he'll want every sniffer he's got in the city on me."

"I wouldn't disagree with you on that one." Biggy agreed. "Come on inside then, the air is cool in here."

The mammal exhaled in relief. "Thanks, you really have no idea how much this means to me that you're doing this."

Biggy smiled. "Hey, no biggy Chip."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 37, Always Prepared**


	38. Always Prepared

**Chapter 37: Always Prepared**

June 27th, 2017, two days earlier

"I don't know, living with all males as a mom isn't all that bad really." Sherry said, as she was talking with Stu Hopps inside the prison cell. "Sometimes it even feels like raising boys is easier for parents than with girls."

"You're telling me." Stu said. "Some of my daughters are too fast to keep up with. Sometimes you worry they'll break something, scream until they break something else, always asking for new and stylish clothes, and then you got some pretty arrogant ones who wants to be the first bunny cop on the ZPD."

Sherry chuckled. "My point exactly. But still, they're good kits and I know they would never mean to harm anyone no matter how much their buttons were pushed."

Stu then turned his direction towards Chip once more, only to see him still with his head down in the corner as usual. "Three mammals…" Stu mumbled to Sherry. "Three mammals have died in here ever since we've been locked up in this cell and he doesn't say a word. And then you got Noah the guard who only tries to torture him even more, physically and mentally. Like, what kind of an animal would do such things?"

"Stu, you should understand why Chip's like that though, he lost his mother." Sherry murmured back.

"My mother passed away like his did as well a few years back." Stu said. "It definitely took me a while to accept the facts of it, but this isn't anything like Chip's case. He's never shed a tear since he heard the news, never jittered, spoke or even moved from that corner. It's almost as if he's too calm…"

"Whispering to each other again are we?" A mammal asked, walking towards the cell.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think we ever asked you to step into our business." Stu argued. "And who are you supposed to be anyways, I thought that koala Noah would typically be on guard."

"Oh I'm sorry, where are my manners?" The mammal wondered. "Names Felix the bear. I take it you're Stuart Hopps and… Sherry Wolford right?" He asked them, but with no response as expected. "And that guy in the corner, oh yea, I remember that wolf alright. Simon Clawchip, the idiot that got two of our mammals killed back in that incident with that Clawhauser dude in the park. Z wanted us to keep him here for a while just to show what happens if someone makes a move he doesn't like, or anything he didn't order someone to do with a negative impact to us."

"I doubt you and your little militia group haven't done the same to other mammals in the past." Sherry said growling.

Felix laughed as he laid his back onto the bars. "Well you're not wrong on that one of course. In fact, it would be considered surprising if we had someone who worked for us at least a year and didn't end up capping someone by then. But what can you do, we all got to make a living somehow in this world, and for us this is the best way of making some good cheddar without having to literally find some to eat from a trash dumpster on the street."

"None of you ever have the slightest remorse about the mammals you've killed, do you?" Sherry asked.

Felix sighed. "We were given a few psychology tips by Z on how to avoid that feeling so none of us end up regretting our sins and crying all about it to the ZPD. But I'll admit, half of the tips involved bribery. I'm guessing Z learned those tips on his own judging from the fact he's had a pretty nasty past all to himself."

"Why can't you just work like a normal animal would in this world?" Stu asked. "Don't you want to at least try something you've always wanted to do like become a doctor, or a musician, or even an astronaut? I mean heck, do what I do and just settle somewhere!"

Felix exhaled deeply as he looked at the molded ceiling. "You don't understand Hopps, when your dreams shatter, so does your hope of doing good for this world. It's exactly why every mammal in this- GHYK!"

Just then, Chip silently went towards Felix, immediately wrapped his belt around his neck and started pulling as hard as he could while positioning his foot on the bars. Felix tried to escape from the lock he was in, but had trouble stopping Chip because of his large arms unable to fit through.

"CHIP, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Stu shouted, as he watched Chip strangle the life out of Felix.

"DON'T YOU DARE INTERFERE!" Chip shouted, as he continued pulling.

Stu and Sherry weren't sure what to do at the moment, as both of them did want to get out of here but weren't too sure of a resort such as this. Stu then decided to interfere with it even if Chip told him not to, but to his surprise was Sherry blocking his way.

"Sherry what the heck do you think you're-!" Stu said, as he was then pushed away by Sherry to the floor.

"Let him do it." Sherry said. "This is our only way out of here, and I'm not giving up this opportunity!"

Felix's eyes then began to turn bloodshot red as his oxygen was being cut from Chip's belt. Felix even went to such a desperate measure, he began clawing at the belt to rip it off, not caring if ended up making hard scratches on his own throat because of it.

"This isn't right sherry!" Stu shouted.

"There is no right or wrong anymore in this Stu!" Sherry shouted back. "What they're doing to us is wrong, so why _shouldn't_ we do the same to them?"

Felix underestimated how hard it was to claw out the belt being pulled on him. He soon made his last few twists and struggles until his whole body began to slowly shut down on him, as he then fell to the floor without a single movement. Chip then dropped the belt and caught his breath for a moment, then grabbed the keys from Felix's pocket, as well at the gun he was carrying with him.

"Jesus, oh jesus, oh jesus, I think I'm going to throw up…" Stu said starting to panic.

"Get a grip Stu, we need to get out of here before the other guards find the body!"

"W-what are you two crazy?" Stu asked. "What's the point in getting out of here if what'll happen is them catching us eventually and then shoving us straight back in here?"

"Stu, now isn't the time to be thinking about the details." Chip brought up. "If they so much as find us here, we're all dead meat."

"That is something I doubt because you know what, I think I understand how this is going to work." Stu said. "Those insane mammals out there are going to find us, and no matter what we do to stop them, they're still going to keep coming!"

"Stu, either you come now or you're going to get left behind!" Sherry shouted.

"If that's what it takes then so be it." Stu said, as he walked against the wall in the cell and took a seat.

"W-what do you think you're doing?" Sherry asked.

"I'm staying, what does it look like I'm doing?" Stu replied.

"Are you crazy, they'll kill you as soon as they see the body!" Sherry shouted.

"No they won't." Stu disagreed. "They're going to need me if they still want to supply some good motivation to my daughter Judy and her friends. If I died, then there would be no motivation left, thus causing Judy and her friends to make a move of their company they wouldn't want to see happen."

"Sherry we need to go now if we still want to have a good chance of getting out of here without security showing up." Chip said looking down the hall, making sure there weren't any guards in sight.

Sherry wanted to continue to persuade Stu, but understood the fact there wasn't much time left to do so. Without saying another word, she walked out of the cell, began running down the hall full of cells and didn't look back.

Once they reached the end of the hall, they were approached by a locked door. Luckily Chip got the keys he took off of Felix, but at the same time he worried there would be more guards on the other side. He slowly unlocked the door, took a peek inside to hear any sounds of movement or talking, but nothing was heard. However, as a precaution they continued to walk slowly towards the ladder out of the sewers.

They walked through most of the room at what looked to be their own place to just chill while someone took watch on the prisoners. _"That's strange, if this is where most of the other guards are usually then why aren't they here?"_ Chip thought.

"Is something wrong Chip?" Sherry asked, as she saw Chip with a rather concerning face on him at the moment.

"Stay here for a second." Chip ordered Sherry, as he began walking ahead raising his gun. He then slowly began to walk towards the next right turn to be sure there weren't any guards to be seen on that side. But as he was just about to take a peak on the other side, he began to have the strange scent of an animal nearby. But after realizing how close the scent was, he instantly turned away from the side and went against the wall.

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

Shots were being heard on the other side of the hall. _"Damn it, they must've seen me take the gun from Felix's pocket and hid to ambush us."_ Chip thought.

" _YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FROM THIS!"_ The mammal down the hall shouted. _"HOWARD, PICK UP THE DAMN RADIO ALREADY AND GET DOWN HERE!"_

"Chip, what were all those sounds I heard from over there?" Sherry asked walking towards the other side of the hallway.

Chip however realized Sherry was about to walk into the line of sight from the mammal down the hallway. "SHERRY GET BACK!" He shouted.

"BANG!"

Sherry then turned to Chip and was about to ask him why she had to stay back, but not before feeling a sharp pain go deep through her stomach as she fell to the ground. Chip then stared in shock after seeing her get shot, but knew he had to hold his ground before getting to her.

"I got a suspect down and walking towards him or her as we speak." The mammal said to her radio.

 _"_ _We'll be there in just a few minutes Ellen, we didn't know things would turn out this way while we were getting a bite to eat."_ Howard said on the other end.

"I don't care _what_ you think you knew Howard, just get over here as fast as you can!"

Once Ellen reached the body, she kicked it a bit to see if it was still moving, and surprisingly it still was. In order to finish the job, she aimed her pistol at the wolf's head, but only to hear a clicking sound from right beside her in the shadows.

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

Ellen fell with three shots to the chest towards the brick wall covering it with her blood before sliding down onto her tail. Chip then ran towards Ellen and kicked the gun away making sure she wouldn't harm them, before seeing her body completely shut down and departed. Chip then ran over to Sherry to check up on her but from the looks of it, she wasn't doing very well.

"Sherry, Sherry are you still with me?" Chip asked.

Sherry's body then began to move only slightly before seeing her mouth cough up a bit of blood. " _G-get out of here…."_ She moaned. _"I… won't make it…"_

"Sherry don't you say that to me, you can at least say that to your family when you get out of here!" Chip shouted, trying to keep her hanging on.

Sherry shook her head in disappointment as tears rolled down her eyes. _"Just… tell my husband and boys I love them… do me the favour of telling them that…"_

Chip's eyes widened as her grip on her and Chip's paws slowly began to weaken. "Sherry, don't you close those eyes, don't you _dare_ close those eyes!" Chip yelled, as water began to fill in his eyes. "Sherry, SHERRY! DAMN IT!"

But after his last shout for Sherry to keep pulling through, Sherry's eyes were already fully closed. Chip would've wanted to have a feeling of grief or sorrow, or even say a prayer for Sherry, but knew there was no time as more guards would be coming down the ladder any moment now. He began to run for the ladder to the outside world before doing a quick check both ways to see if anyone else was coming, before taking a look at Sherry's corpse one last time. He then climbed the ladder, opened the lid and peeped his head out to see if the coast was clear.

He began to hear footsteps coming from only a few seconds away and fast. He quickly hopped out of the sewers, closed the lid and began running to the nearest cover to hide himself so the backup guards wouldn't hear him. He then began to hear the sounds of some mammals trying to radio it who was most likely the dead guard inside.

"Ellen, we've reached the sewers, what's your status?" Howard asked, but with no response after a few seconds. "Ellen, we've reached the sewers, _what is your status?!_ Damn it, she's not responding."

"What do you think could've happened?" The hippo Howard was with asked.

"I don't know, but if what I assume to have happened is correct, then we're going to have to stay cautious when we go down there." Howard said. "Alright come on, let's get going before anything else bad happens."

Once Howard and the hippo were down the sewers and had closed the lid, Chip then sprinted away from the entrance as fast as he could until it came to the point where he was unable to breathe. The whole time he was running, he couldn't stop thinking about what had happened to Sherry reminded him so much about what happened to his own mother. Just the thought of seeing something like that happen with his very eyes only brought continuous and unwanted tears to himself.

* * *

June 29th, 2017, present time

"So that's how it went down huh?" Biggy asked, as he was listening to Chip's story on the events that had happened only a couple days ago.

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up." Chip replied. "I've still kept that gun the bear had with him, along with a couple magazines for my own safety. You never know where Z's crew is going to look for an animal like me."

"So all that time in the cell you were staying in, you were literally waiting for someone to lay their back on the cell bars just so you could get the chance to catch them by surprise and steal the keys?"

"Uh huh, and it seems like it was worth the wait when I got the chance."

"Wow, to think I would know better by now about how focused our guards really are down there."

"Z's guards are not like any typical security guards at a prison Biggy." Chip said. "Sometimes they aren't always the most focused group of mammals from what I saw in that cell. I figured if I waited long enough, then I could get my chance at breaking out of there successfully and unharmed."

" _But_ unplanned from the sounds of it." Biggy said. "And three mammal's dead, that's…. how you holding up from it?"

"Well, other than the fact that I got Sherry killed and am now a murderer, I'd say it just takes time for me to process it is all."

"I don't blame you, it always took me time to get over killing someone." Biggy admitted. "Sometimes, that feeling just never goes away. But hey you know, when you plan to do something I guess you got to be always prepared."

"Not for Z's case, he never has those kind of feelings."

"No, Z's case is one many mammals have trouble comprehending at times." Biggy said. "He does have emotions that guy, and I've seen it many times from him especially when I hear him having some talks with his little girl on the phone. However, what goes on in his mind when he's about to kill someone, it's something no one seems to understand. He never holds it back, he never ends up thinking of another way out, and he just pulls the trigger when necessary. If you ask me, he probably goes by a motto he doesn't want to give up."

"What sort of a motto would that be?"

Biggy shrugged. "A motto that most likely states when you have a job to do, you get it done and no questions asked. Something in his past… it must've just triggered it all in his head from that moment on."

"Well you've been around with him long enough, do you got any assumptions on your mind you think you can figure out from?"

"One." Biggy said still thinking about it. "But it's longer than you think it is from what he's told me and a few of the other mammals who were with him from the start."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was long." Chip said. "I'm all eyes and ears for you now."

Biggy then laid back on his chair and started. "Z back then, and now among the public citizens of Zootopia was always known as Zamiel Stripes. He came from a very nice and well known family in a small town a few other cities away from here called Hamsver Sound. He was quite the mathematics kid back at his school, especially since he never got lower than an eighty-five on a test all the way to the eighth grade, which I presume is why he became an accountant as well when he moved to Zootopia. Including him, he was from a family of six. It was his mother, his father, and his three little sisters. Now to no surprise, as a math 'nerd' he was pushed around and teased at a lot by many of the bullies that went to his school. One day, he was walking home on his own since all of his siblings were at a friend's house, he was approached by the same usual bullies on a street forced him into an alleyway. But this time, considering their marks in math were below a passing level, one of the tiger kits grabbed him by the neck and literally threatened him to do his homework for the remaining year or otherwise claimed they would come back one day and beat him so bad, he would never be able to walk ever again."

"And I'm assuming the smart choice he made for the situation he was in was he did their work for him, right?"

"Well yes, but that's a whole other story right there." Biggy said. "So when Zamiel agreed to, the bullies left him alone and called him a wimp before curling himself into a ball and began to cry. But as he was there, he began hearing the sounds of arguing and shouting coming from nearby at the back of a building. So instinctively he went over there to take a look and see what all the commotion was about, but to his surprise was two mammals pointing a gun at each other's heads. However, one of the mammals got a little side-tracked after seeing Zamiel pop out from the corner of the building and because of that, the other mammal in front of him shot him straight through the head. Zamiel was obviously horrified by the sight, which made him scream as it caught the other mammal's attention and took off by jumping over one of the fences. Now a few moments later, some other mammals who turned out to be the dead mammal's friends came running over after they heard the scream. Needless to say, they saw Zamiel and the stunned expression he had on him from the sight of the body."

"So what did they do then, interrogate him, ask him what he saw, bring him over to the police, what?"

"None of the above, one of the mammals went over to him, took out a dart gun he had in his pocket and shot him straight through the neck with it." Biggy answered. "Zamiel soon after awoke to find himself tied to a chair in some old looking garage. That's when the mammals from before came inside and began to interrogate him about the things he saw, and how it all went down. As afraid as Zamiel was, he still ended up telling them what he saw. Now from the mammals interrogating him's point of view, they believe if he didn't show up to distract the mammal that was shot, their friend would still be alive. Because of that, they thought it should be Zamiel to be the one to clean up for his supposed 'crimes'. Zamiel kept pleading to them to let him go home to be with his family, and would never speak of this to anyone ever, but the other mammals didn't seem to buy it."

"Why would they have not bought it from a scared little kit?"

"I don't know, maybe to them it doesn't matter what age someone is, they're bound to tell someone eventually." Biggy replied. "So now they went to an even further line, saying that he had a week to kill the mammal that got away to even the score with their dead friend, otherwise the mammals close to him would end up paying the price instead, seeing as how Zamiel told them his full name during the interrogation. So the mammals ended up giving Zamiel his own gun and let him go soon after. But neither Zamiel nor the mammals were sure of who the mammal was in the first place, so Zamiel wasn't ever able to get the right opportunity to actually do it. One week went by, and they found his father dead in a parking lot inside his car at his workplace. Another week went by, and they found his mother dead inside his home when he and his siblings got home from school."

"My god…" Chip said. "It was actually that far those mammals took the situation?"

"Yes, indeed it was." Biggy said. "Those mammals though were not the typical or professional kind of criminals you would see on the streets, they were insane and unnatural mammals who had no rules, limits or boundaries as to what they did. Some would even describe animals like them as savages. Now during the third week as he was walking to school while still trying to cope with the loss of his parents, he noticed a similar looking mammal walking into one of the large supermarkets in the town, who he recognized as the mammal who shot the other mammal's friend behind the building. He began to follow him and eventually found him walking back to his car as Zamiel wrote the licence plate number on it. As twisted as his situation was, he knew he had to find that car so he could find the mammal and kill him, otherwise the mammals who kidnapped him would be going after his sisters next."

"So did he ever find the mammal with the same license plate after that?"

"Sadly not on time." Biggy replied. "Another week went by and he heard the news about his three sisters and how an unknown assailant crept through the window of the orphanage they all had to stay at and injected them with a fast working poison. That right there completely broke Zamiel which made him go insane and have a complete meltdown as his entire family was now dead. When he was finally able to go back to his bed the next day, he found a note under his blankets which said that he was next if the mammal wasn't taken care of by the end of the week."

"Well, if he's still here than it sounds like he actually did it."

"And he did." Biggy said. "It was the final day he had to find the mammal and kill him. To his luck, he found the same license plate parked by a bar just a few blocks from the orphanage he was staying at. As the mammal walked out of the bar and was about to head into his car, Zamiel gunned him down and immediately began running for the woods so no one would see him. Z even told me himself that it was one of the biggest things he ever regretted doing to someone up until now. Now it does sound a little crazy coming from someone like Z, but I suppose it was because back then he didn't have a clue about anything he would later end up doing in his life."

"You don't say."

Biggy grinned a little. "So once the job was finally finished and the mammal he needed to find and kill was dead, the following day nothing happened to him. However, the day after that as he was walking back from school as he typically would on a weekday, a car approached him. The owner of the car asked Zamiel to get inside saying that he wanted to take him somewhere special. Instinctively of course, Zamiel said no and continued to walk, but not before the driver caught up to him again and pulled out a pistol. And with that, Z and the driver were off to god only knows where. Turns out he took Zamiel to the gang's hideout which seemed to mostly be a place to chill seeing as how there was a bar and some old pool tables around there. When he got there he was shown to the leader of the gang, who simply congratulated him on completing what they asked him to do, and giving his fake-sounding sorrows to him for hearing about his whole family's death."

"That sounds like something any mammal would lash out on."

"But not Zamiel." Biggy said. "Zamiel however said not one word while he was there, even if someone were to ask him his name, not a whisper from him. The mammals decided to leave him by one of the couches for the remainder of the night and deciding what to do with him after a few beers. But the error they all made on that part was going a bit over the top with the drinks as each mammal hand drunk up to at least five bottles worth of alcohol. Zamiel at the same time began to notice they were vulnerable due to all the alcohol that got into those mammal's systems. It was only then when he realized it was his chance, a chance to get even with all those mammals. Think about it Chip, being alone with a bunch of mammals who basically massacred your entire family vulnerable to a mammal like _Zamiel?"_

"I got a pretty good feeling at what he did next then."

"And you're probably right." Biggy agreed. "Because soon after, Zamiel went through one of the bags of guns they had kept inside that place, took out an assault rifle and bambambambam! Gunned all ten of them down with one mag. Now who would have thought it, turns out one of the mammals who was the leader still had a few breaths in him. Zamiel obviously noticed, so he took a pistol from one of the dead mammal's on the ground and approached the leader with it as he stood over him. The leader couldn't speak due to his injuries so he waved his paws up in surrender as he feared of dying, only to be shot in the head a few seconds later by Zamiel."

"Woah…" Chip said. "Sounds to me like he really is as dangerous as they say. Those mammals really did create a monster out of him."

"Perhaps…" Biggy said. "Or maybe they just released the chain of the _animal_ inside Zamiel, all this time. Say Chip, do you know why Zamiel calls himself Z now?"

Chip thought about it for a few moments. "I don't know, but I assume you know the answer to that."

"It's because it represented the broken parts of him after that incident." Biggy said. "From that moment on, all he had after that was himself, nobody else to love or look up to. Because of that, when he went into this major business of weapon manufacturing, he decided to show his true self to the world and how broken inside he really was as an animal. He then shortened his name from Zamiel to Z, mostly to show it was really that was all inside him, even feeling disgraced to himself for mammals saying his full name when he knew inside he would never be full again."

"Did Z really tell you all that stuff to you and everyone that worked for him?"

"No, but considering I've worked for him for many years he always ended up mentioning lots of memories about his past in full detail." Biggy explained. "It wasn't hard to connect the separate stories together too long after. But look Chip, the point I've been trying to make is that Z believes the motto of when a mammal has to do something, it needs to be done. No refusals, time delays or excuses, simply done. It must have stuck to him after seeing what had happened to himself when he never followed that motto when he was young. Sometimes the past is too hard to let go of for many mammals, and I am one of them."

Chip looked over to Biggy in concern, knowing the kinds of pain he himself must have gone through as well. "You love your family that much don't you?"

There was silence in the room for a couple moments before hearing some chuckling from Biggy. "I suppose that's one thing in which makes us both very alike Chip."

Chip slowly nodded back. "So what do we do now?"

"I have no earthly idea Chip." Biggy replied. "Taking down a mammal like Z and his organization is merely the exasperation of the situation itself. We have very few mammals who are on our side now."

"Oh, so we still have those four mammals from the mysterious five group right?"

"Three now actually." Biggy corrected. "One of them was filled with led by the police after having shot Z's ex-wife in the head on some mischievous street down in the Canal District.

Chip was merely speechless after the words which invoked his inner self. "Wait a second, Z's ex is dead? What the hell have I been missing out in the world after all this time?"

Biggy laughed out loud. " _Ohhhhh_ you wouldn't believe it Chip. You wouldn't believe it…"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 38, Natural Instincts**

 **Fun fact: Ellen and Howard, the two guards mentioned in this chapter were already heard from before in chapter 30, Irreversible Actions, where they were the two mammals Finnick eavesdropped on in learning the truth about his mother.**


	39. Natural Instincts

**Chapter 38: Natural Instincts**

December 17th, 2017, six months later

Six long months have passed by for everyone. The city of Zootopia continued to be put to the ground of nothing but the continuous dread and agitation that had been inflicted upon to all citizens. Some mammals simply moved, most mammals either couldn't because of their financial issues, or were not willing to back down in the name of fear towards the criminals lurking among all of Zootopia. Protests were even seen all over the city of the violence which had been happening, and most of them were targeted at the ZPD for seeming to not be quote, 'doing their job right'." Sometimes families of the mammals who had fallen victim to the recent murders in the city came out to the public, and asked anyone who knew about these so-called weapon manufacturers to come forward. But to no surprise, nothing new ever came up after the incident at the abandoned building.

But even though nothing ever came up at the ZPD, there were still rumors going around saying the dealers for the weapons business known as the mysterious five were still selling big on the streets. However, the number has now went from four to three after having another member shot and killed by the ZPD. The whole city now seem to wonder every day, ' _who are the other three mammals out there on the streets as we speak a part of the mysterious five'?_ It only made Judy, Nick and Danny feel more confliction within each other month by month.

Danny continued his work as an average mechanic who still got yelled at a bunch by his Gerbil boss, mainly working on any of the motorcycles which came in with it being his specialty. But sometimes he would end up needing to come up with the occasional lie if he ever had to leave early because of a deal they had to be ready to make with other groups of mammals. But every time he gave the guns to all of the anonymous mammals, he worried what they would end up doing with those guns. Danny was one who never wanted to spark some trouble intentionally, but other times the words still came back to bite him in the tail even without consent. One of those times was being informed about his mother's death in the prison. All three had heard about the prison escape leaving two more of Z's crew dead, along with Danny's mother. But as for Chip, Z and his crew continued to search everywhere they could for him, but not even a scent was found. This led some to believe he might have skipped town so no one could find him, at least from Z and his mammals.

Both Judy and Nick continued their work as normal ZPD officers, no matter how hard they felt to confess about what they have caused to the city of Zootopia. Judy however, began to feel the most pressured out of the three. Now that it was just her father left in that jail cell, one more big screw up again and she knew it would be her father who would end up paying the price. Nick on the other paw tried to do whatever he could. He didn't know what it was sometimes, but the one emotion he didn't want himself to feel was the feeling of uselessness. Luckily for him, Amber had been keeping him together for the past few months so he wouldn't _have_ to ever worry about falling apart.

Nick and Amber's relationship with each other was more or less of an accepting one, as one would say if anyone ever knew they were dating now. Nick had now been able to take Amber out into the public's eyes for anyone to see after having bought some makeup and clothing for her to make herself into an unrecognizable vixen to Zootopia. At times there would come to a point of touching lips between the two, and other times there wasn't. To each other, they agreed in their minds to only think about it one step at a time. Not in a way animals did it back in the prehistoric times which was simply ' _snatching and grabbing',_ no questions asked.

It was the late afternoon when Nick caught Judy at her desk with their shift almost ending. "Hey carrots, our shift is almost over, what are you doing here so late?" He asked.

"Just finishing up a few file reports of those jewelry store burglars from two weeks ago." Judy replied, as she continued writing. "Not only that, Z texted us all saying we were doing another deal tonight. So I either do this in the morning and get yelled at by Bogo the whole morning as if he's my accidental alarm clock going off on the weekend, or I just finish with this report _now_ so there's no worries."

"Oh, well when you put it like that…" Nick said reconsidering. "So I was just wondering if you wanted to grab a quick bite on our way out before it's time to meet up with Biggy at drive to the location."

"Yea, I'm afraid I'm going to have to refuse on that one Nick." Judy declined. "By the time I'm finished with this, I'll be heading to where Biggy is as well. But thanks for the offer though."

"Oh, okay that's fine." Nick said. "There'll be other days to do it so it's _all good."_ But then there was another awkward silence between the two as both of them oddly had trouble saying their farewells to each other. "…You're still thinking about it too?" He asked.

" _Everyday."_ Judy moaned, as she dropped her head on the desk. "I can't take this anymore Nick… It's been six months since our last incident and he's _still_ making us do all of his dirty work for us!"

"Likewise Judy." Nick said. "And think about what Danny's been through mentally also. He's also recently lost a mother and the fact that he can't tell his worrisome dad and brother must be bringing him some real agony to him lately."

"It's almost as if Z _wants_ us to pull the trigger on ourselves." Judy said. "Nick… I don't know how much more I have in me for this. I don't want to do any more of this, frankly I wouldn't care if Z had shot me then rather than Clawhauser! But I can't Nick… because if I ever decide to call it quits on Z, he's going to kill my father."

"Judy, snap out of it." Nick advised. "This isn't who you are, this isn't the brave and somewhat stubborn Judy Hopps I knew ever since the jumbeaux café. The Judy Hopps I know would be too careless to give up, let alone on a criminal who thinks he can keep us working for him as if we were his slaves."

"Well what else can I tell you that I haven't already Nick?" Judy asked, as she sighed. "We can't beat him, it's that simple. We can try as many more times as we want, but it will always backfire on us and lead to more unwanted deaths."

"Those deaths were not our fault."

"You're wrong Nick, _all_ of them was our fault." Judy shot back. "If we had just continued to have more silly conversations on that roof and not noticing Chip with those bags that day, none of this would've ever happened…. Maybe Clawhauser would still be here, along with Finnick, Bucky, Maria Masto, your mother Sarah Wilde, Sherry Wolford, Drew Hoble, Duke Weaselton, officer Pancho, you _know_ all of them could've still been here."

Nick seemed to think Judy was being a little too hard on herself. "Animals die everyday Judy, it's a fact of life. Sure some of them may have been cut too early, but we can't give in to what has happened, otherwise the light in us will be trembled over by darkness."

"Enough, of the philosophical stuff on me Nick, I understand that stuff already because I've been needing to read a few books of those lately, so I don't end up turning into what Finnick turned into." Judy stated. "….. I'm just tired of it. There's really not much else to say except that I'm tired of it."

"Hey, come here…" Nick said holding his arms out while walking towards Judy.

Judy wasn't much of an animal who was given hugs, but she knew Nick knew she could use a hug right now. Without hesitation, she gave in as well and stood up while wrapping her arms around Nick as well. A couple moments had passed, and both of them were still deadlocked to each other, as tears began rolling out of Judy's eyes.

 _"_ _Don't ever leave my side Nick…"_ Judy whispered, as the two still had their arms tight around each other. _"If anything ever happened to my closest friend now,_ _I would never ever forgive myself..."_

" _Aw, you don't have to worry about me fluff."_ Nick murmured back. " _Z may get to me like a raging bull most of the time, but I'm never going to give in to what he's made us go through. After what he did to my mother… I'm just as stubborn as you, a mammal who wants to see him go down but doesn't know how to do it yet."_

Judy giggled a little from Nick's words, but overall she could tell they were genuine. "Okay well, thanks for your compassion Nick I really do appreciate it, but I got to get back to work before I get going." She said, as she loosened her grip around Nick.

"Yea, yea, I understand." Nick said. "So…. I guess I'll be seeing you soon then when the time comes."

"Uh huh." Judy replied, while sitting back down on her seat.

Nick then grabbed his bag and continued walking out of the office and down to the main lobby. But he couldn't help but notice Bogo walking by as he seemed to still be taking a look at a large number of reports as he always would now on a daily basis. Nick and many other officers from the ZPD couldn't help but feel like he was wasting his time looking at all those files when after months and months of searching for this weapons group, not one lead had ever come up in which would be able to help well enough to solve the case.

* * *

 _"_ _So what kind of mammals are they?"_ Chip asked, as Biggy was waiting in the truck while talking with him on the phone.

"Just a few animals who require the right tools to silence a few other noisy animals somewhere out west." Biggy replied. "You know, the usual motives from out buyers."

" _Has there been any in recent events where you think we can possibly use to our advantage?"_

"No, but it's on a rare occasion those things happen." Biggy answered. "But as for these animals the three are trading with right now, they call themselves 'The Possum.' I hear its play on words for the species Opossum, and that it's referring to something about them with the known fact of Opossums pretending to be dead so they live or whatever."

 _"_ _What the hell would they be trying to refer to from that?"_

"Hey don't ask me, I just say what I've heard around the streets, not from past knowledge." Biggy stated. "Z was informed from them that the intentions of those weapons is an act of revenge. The leader's brother was stabbed by someone from a higher ranked gang near them named 'Mother's Savage.' What they're doing is probably going to get them killed seeing as how they don't seem to comprehend what they're up against when going after those kind of animals."

" _So then what do you think will happen in the aftermath of it all?"_ Chip asked. _"Even if Z informed his buyers not to speak to anyone about their business, how does he know someone won't cough up what they know when they're beaten to a pole for answers?"_

"He doesn't, and he knows that." Biggy replied. "He had his doubts about this group and what they could leak to others which would trace back to him and the crew, but those mammals did bring up a good price for what they were asking for. Remember Chip, he does his homework before he agrees to sell to anyone. But yea Z was unable to refuse, and even looked on the bright side assuming by the time they were down to their last few bullets, there would most likely be no one to interrogate in the end."

" _Well let's say it did ever happen and they ended up letting one of them live to see what he knew, what would happen next after that?"_

"Well they're going to want to know who supplied them with the weapons first of all since it's not your average day you find a gun laying on the streets of Zootopia clearly." Biggy assumed. "And they're probably going to want something out of it. Sometimes it's assurance of no other dangers, sometimes its money, sometimes its blood shedding, it tends to differ a lot with certain gangs."

" _Yea but the first people they would go to, to ask questions about Z's gang is the mysterious five, and they hate Z more than anyone would hate sour food."_

"You're probably right about that Chip considering word has gotten around numerous times about them on the streets, but if there's a shot at taking out Z with those animals then we may as well take it." Biggy suggested. "It's a screwed up thing to do I know, but we're running out of options here."

" _…_ _. Well, if it's something which can be used as a form of attack, then yea it's something we'll have to consider."_

Just then, Biggy started hearing footsteps and talking coming his way. "Sorry Chip, but it sounds like the two are coming back to the truck." He informed. "We can elaborate more on this another time."

 _"_ _Yea yea of course, I'll see you whenever your get back to your crib."_

Biggy chuckled a little. "Until then." He said hanging up the phone. Soon after, he heard the side door slide open with the two mammals hopping on inside, as they unzipped the face part of their hoodies to get some air. "Well, did you get everything we needed?" He asked, as Judy held up the bags filled with money in front of him. "Fantastic." He said, while starting the car up.

"Is that the only trade we need to do until after the holidays?" Judy asked.

"I assume it will, Z might be hard-working with business but even he's got a family to be with at the end of the day." Biggy replied. "So tell me again why that Danny friend of yours couldn't make it?"

"Hey, it's not his fault you scheduled the deal to happen during his father's birthday." Nick argued. "Besides Biggy, we've done enough of these by now we don't need to be holding each other's paws during the process."

"It's not the knowledge of the experience I'm thinking about Wilde, it's the numbers."

"Numbers?" Judy wondered.

"Yea, do you remember when I told you about those five animals we originally had for trading with buyers?" Biggy asked, as the two nodded. "Well not all of that was true. You see, two of them turned out to have been in a relationship with each other so they were going out that night which meant the other three mammals were doing it without them. The money dispute was between five other mammals and because that happened, all three were killed leaving the five buyers without a scratch, and running away with both the guns and the money. Two days later another deal went down and the same thing happened with the remaining two mammals."

"Sounds pretty unlucky then doesn't it?" Nick asked.

"Tell me about it." Biggy agreed. "Moral of the story is it isn't preferred to go somewhere without everyone you need to go with, otherwise it may not work out the way you want it to."

"Well you know Biggy, I like to see life as a game of luck." Nick said. "Everything you say, everything you claim or take action towards, you always hope it's your side that ends up victorious in the end. It's called natural instinct. Think about it, naturally most animals from a certain country or city would want their sports team to win. Naturally parents hope their kits don't get into any trouble, especially with a sitter around, while they're going out for dinner somewhere. The same variables worked for those five in the situation, only the odds weren't in their favour then."

Biggy shrugged. "That's one way of seeing it, and sometimes it's common sense, or inevitable no matter what you try to do."

"Hey Biggy?" Judy asked, as Biggy turned his head a little to see Judy's reflection in the mirror. "Do you mind dropping both me and Nick over at my place this time?"

"Are you sure, why the sudden change of plans?" Biggy asked.

"Yea, what's that all about Judy?" Nick asked.

"It's just that there's something important I realized I need to talk with him earlier about it, but privately." Judy replied. "So is that okay with you?"

Biggy shrugged. "I don't see why not. Quite frankly it's better for me now since I won't need to be making two trips now."

Nick on the other paw didn't seem to be buying it so easily. _"Uh carrots, may I ask what this is all about?"_ He whispered.

 _"_ _I'll tell you about it when we get to my apartment, I don't want to take the chance of anyone overhearing this."_ Judy replied.

 _"_ _Why, what's this all about?"_

 _"_ _Nick."_

 _"_ _Right, sorry."_

Judy and Nick understood the fact they had to change out of the suits they were in for the deal, and switching back to normal clothing from the backpacks they brought if they wanted to be dropped off at the front of their homes. The rest of the drive was silent all the way until they got to Judy's house since there really was nothing else they needed to talk about, at least to each other. Soon enough, they arrived back at Judy's apartment and Nick and Judy got out of the car.

"You two watch yourselves out there now, we wouldn't want you to get into any _more_ trouble than you have in the past." Biggy reminded.

"Gee, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that." Judy said, as she slid the side door shut. Once Biggy's car was out of sight, Judy knew the coast was clear. "Alright come on inside for a moment Nick, There's something I wanted to show you."

"I'm all eyes and ears carrots." Nick replied, as the two walked into the apartment.

Nick seemed to notice a few times while he was going inside, the building itself actually wasn't as bad as his old apartment with no bugs, stained walls or lost clothing everywhere. The only disadvantage to her apartment was no elevator to any floors. Judy brought up earlier that every time someone tried to use the elevator, because of some problems with the building structure it kept getting stuck. Even with a new one put in afterwards it still kept getting stuck, so the employees decided to keep it away from apartment owners for the time being.

"We're almost there lazy tail." Judy said, as she and Nick were climbing up the stairs to the floor her room was on.

"Hold on, you don't think Pronk or your other neighbors will overhear are conversation, do you?" Nick asked concerned."

"Pronk?" Judy said in exaggeration. "Nick, first of all I don't even have any neighbors living next to me because no one wants to rent that room since someone passed away in there about five years ago."

Nick pinched his forehead skin together in disbelief as he thought it wasn't much of a reason one wouldn't want to live in there. "I still don't quite see the reasoning for why someone wouldn't want to buy it because of that." He said.

"And neither do I Nick, I mean that porcupine lived to be about 105 years old dying of natural causes and his family was expecting it to happen." Judy explained. "I guess it just comes to show how picky some buyers are for real estate."

"You think?"

"But as I was saying, for Pronk's case he moved out about four months ago." Judy brought up. "Turns out month by months that had gone by for him, he still couldn't get over the disappearance of Bucky and his presumed dead status from the ZPD. A year after Bucky went missing, Pronk fell into depression and had to see a few specialists about it. While it was all happening, I went to him a few times to try and get him to feel better, but just by looking into his eyes I could tell he wasn't. A few months later I saw him moving some stuff out of his apartment room and knew what it meant. I asked him what the deal was with all the stuff moving, which is when he simply told me he was leaving. He had no reason to hide it due to his own shame, it was _his_ choice."

"Oh, well around then it must have been pretty sudden for you huh?" Nick asked, as Judy nodded while biting her lip. "Well did you ask him where he was going after he finished getting his stuff out of his room?"

"Well he never really said where specifically, but he did say something about moving in with some relatives until he could find a better and more suited home for himself." Judy replied. "But in my opinion, I think he just couldn't take living in that apartment room another second since it may have reminded him too much of Bucky."

"Oh, I hate to say it but you're probably right, but not like in a bad way for you or anything so…"

Judy giggled. "I understand Nick. But yea, my point is we won't be having anyone overhearing on our conversations this time, trust me." She said, as she took her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door to her apartment room.

"I swear carrots, I just don't know how you even live in a closed space like this, and I'm not saying it because I'm claustrophobic." Nick said, while entering Judy's room and closing the door from behind while making sure his tail wasn't closed on.

"It does grow on you Nick I'll admit, but the trick is to just maneuver your way around it all and you'd get used to it eventually." Judy uttered. "Now I know you haven't seen this yet in the flesh, but I need you to promise me you won't tell anyone else about this, not even Danny until the right time comes understand?"

Nick crossed his arms together. "Sure, if that's what it takes carrots."

Judy had her doubts at first the way he said it, but knew in her head there was no way Nick would ever betray her. She began to walk over to the bottom part of her bed, as she took a box out of it and put it on top of her bed. She then took her keys out of her pocket, used the small one to unlock the box and opened it.

"What's in there?" Nick asked.

"See for yourself." Judy replied.

Nick then walked over to where Judy was to see what was inside the box, but to his surprise was the one thing he was expecting it to be. "Is that from…." He asked pointing to it.

"Uh huh." Judy said nodding, as Nick was staring at the forty thousand dollarz she stole from the briefcase during the Cliffside Asylum incident.

"W-why are you showing this to me…"

"Because I feel like I should have shown it to you by now so you know I've still got it on me." Judy replied. "I mean after the little heated argument we had that night about my confession, I wasn't sure yet on whether I could tell you or not about it and where I was keeping it."

"Okay I get that part of it Judy." Nick assured. "But is that all you really came to show me, the hidden place to where you're keeping the money you stole from the Asylum?"

"No, of course it isn't the only thing I wanted to tell you about." Judy exaggerated. "You see, I'm aware things are beginning to get worse the longer we are a part of Z's crew, I know that… But if one day either of us have to leave in an emergency for their own safety and will be unable to find each other before we go, I feel like _both_ of us will need a bit of insurance along the way."

"What are getting at Judy?"

Judy sighed. "I want you to take half of this."

* * *

Bogo continued doing his research in his office for the time being of looking at some of the recent animals to have gone missing, or have already been found for dead.

 _"_ _Mammal after mammal now we keep getting reports of them with criminal backgrounds going missing, it just doesn't make any sense…"_ Bogo thought. _"Why would anyone want these type of criminals gone or even dead? Was it during the line of fire to some incidents which were never reported, or what if someone who's out there right now is trying to take out the competition…"_

 _"_ _KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."_

Just then, someone began to knock on Bogo's door. "Who is it?" Bogo asked.

" _Officer Snarlbuff Chief."_ The officer replied.

Bogo sighed, knowing he wasn't in the mood for any officers to chat with him at the moment. "Fine come in, but make it quick."

Officer Snarlbuff then opened the door and the leopard took a seat in front of Bogo. "Sorry to interrupt you Chief, but I just wanted to let you know the press has begun to swarm in again, and some don't seem like they want to leave until you do."

"The press, what do they want?" Bogo asked. "Tell me there wasn't another incident that just happened without my knowledge of it…"

"No, thankfully it's not that." Snarlbuff replied. "They've just been wanting to hear answers from you on the cases and rumors on the streets animals in Zootopia have been hearing quite frequently."

"Well whatever it is they're asking, tell them we don't have the answers we're looking for yet." Bogo requested. "Actually, scratch that because that will just cause more panic. You know what, go down there and give the speeches we would usually give to buy us some time for a little while longer."

"Why, do you think you got something on any of these so-called weapon manufacturers, or Mysterious Five animals we've been researching a lot into?"

"I have my theories." Bogo admitted. "But theories are always useless _especially_ at times like this because you're always going to have mammals who will and won't believe it. I want to find something where we can't have any mammals that won't believe it, or for short, evidence."

Snarlbuff couldn't believe all the files he seemed to be looking at on his desk at once. But there was one file on his desk that caught his eye in particular, one that was an animal he didn't seem to recognize from any of the other animals who had fallen victim to many of the previous gun related cases which have come up.

"Hold on a second Bogo, who's this guy?" Snarlbuff asked pointing to the file.

"Who him?" Bogo asked pointing to the file, as Snarlbuff nodded in return. "Well, for now I'm just referring to him as a hunch. He was the ex-husband of the zebra Francince Stripes, the same animal who was shot by that fennec fox Finnick Masto about six months back."

"Their profiles have no criminal activity on them Chief, why would you have any reason to suspect them of something further?"

"I've just had this… odd understanding of the events from that night." Bogo replied. "A member of the mysterious five suddenly kidnaps a female zebra for reasons unknown? Not only that, he finishes the job when the swat team approaches him and say's some odd last words about some animal who goes by the name of Z. I'm not even sure if this Z animal is a criminal yet, but the way that fennec said it sounds like he seems to be a criminal we have no knowledge, or anything that has been brought up yet about him or her."

"How are you so sure this Z character he claimed of is an animal?" Snarlbuff asked. "The name can also easily be the name of some unknown gang we aren't aware of yet."

"It's why I'm keeping some of these suspicions as just theories since it could possibly be more than one outcome." Bogo said. "But the lady itself is the big question mark. Even for these sort of cases, animals such as this fennec wouldn't be grabbing a random carrot anywhere out of the ground, he would go somewhere specific because the ones he would go to are just the kind he wants."

"So what you're saying is this fennec didn't simply choose this zebra lady out of pure randomness?"

"Also, why would he want to kidnap someone in the first place?" Bogo wondered. "We never figured out why this mammal was doing what he was doing to that zebra. And to only make things even more complicated, we got phone calls from the same puffy voices we would usually be hearing from under circumstances in the investigation into the Mysterious five mammals."

"Doesn't it kind of sound like to you these weapon manufacturers were trying to stop what he was doing then?"

"You're right on the money with that thought Snarlbuff." Bogo agreed. "The only question is why. Why go through the trouble of bringing this over to the ZPD if they couldn't just deal with it themselves?"

"… Because it might have been personal." Snarlbuff considered. "So that's why you've got your suspicions on that ex-husband."

"As I've said to you, all of this is just theories." Bogo reminded. "We can't be too sure of it until we get proof. For the time being, I want you to go downstairs and take care of the press in any way that will get them to leave us alone, or at least give us more time to elaborate on our suspicions before we make a move."

"I'm on it chief." Snarlbuff said, as he got up from the chair and walked out of the office while closing the door.

Bogo however, still had a strong feeling to this animal even he could not understand, but knew in his mind he couldn't have been wrong to suspect him. It was almost as if there seemed to be more than what meets the eye of him.

 _"_ _Zamiel Stripes…"_ Bogo thought.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 39, Nearing Defeat**


	40. Nearing Defeat

**Chapter 39: Nearing Defeat**

"No way." Nick said, as he refused to take half of the money Judy offered to give to him.

"Nick this isn't another one of those yes or no questions you're thinking about, this is something I _need_ you to do for me." Judy pleaded.

"What you _need_ me to do, is that a fact?" Nick wondered, while crossing his arms and turning his head away.

Judy started to pinch her nose in stress. "Look, I get the angle you're looking at here with this Nick, I honestly do. But the reason I've brought it up now is because as I've said before, things have been getting worse on the streets now, Z's even got a few mammals working during the day. And during the day is when _everyone_ is at risk because they're all awake and roaming the streets thinking 'hey, I'm sure nothing bad could even possibly happen to us!'"

"Why me?" Nick asked turning his head back in Judy's direction. "Hell, why couldn't you just ask Danny or even that Biggy guy who's apparently on our side no matter how sketchy he might seem?"

"Because you're the closest friend I have left who I can trust with this money." Judy confessed. "Listen, to be honest I've been worrying a lot lately on whether the same thing Finnick did with breaking into my apartment will happen again. If Finnick could do it with that lock, then I'm sure it wouldn't take Z too long to find someone else who can easily do it if push comes to shove."

"While that may be true, it doesn't explain the strategy to giving it to me still."

 _"_ _Nick, you're never so complicated to talk to, why do you have to start now?"_ Judy thought, as she exhaled in annoyance and began to explain. "Biggy might have done some things for us to help us out in the past I can't deny that, but he was also the animal who shot Bucky…. It's just something I can't let go of from him. Danny meanwhile doesn't seem like he knows what he's doing anymore. He may have healed from the bullet wound Finnick gave him, but his sanity still isn't in the place we want it to be. But who can blame him though since his mother did die after all and he never got a chance to say that goodbye she wanted from him."

"Okay so let me guess, I'm the only one left you know who's still normal and in still in the right place."

"Uh huh." Judy nodded.

"So what you're saying is you want me to take twenty of the forty grand you took for safe keeping?"

"If we ever needed a backup plan for anything, and if they ever got their paws on this money then yes." Judy replied. "But also to make sure both of us have a chance if it ever becomes too dangerous for us out there."

"You see that's what's bugging me about all this Judy." Nick said. "You're saying it like we're leaving a group behind in an apocalypse and we took some of their stuff. We can use that money definitely, but don't you think we're sort of betraying the animals of Zootopia that way? Everyone already is scared to death of running into any of Z's mammals and I wouldn't blame em!"

"Oh no you're getting the wrong idea here Nick." Judy said, as Nick was now confused. "I don't know about you, but I will stop at nothing until this Z mammal is brought down no matter what way we need to do it in."

"So then why do you want to give me this you're feeling confident enough?"

Judy closed her eyes for a second to give herself enough confidence to tell him. "If one of us dies from Z or his crew, we will know he's coming after the other one next and hopefully it should give you or me enough time to get away if possible."

"Woah, woah, since when did we get on the topic of one of us dying, let alone seeming to put Danny out of all of this?"

"Nick, Danny's brother works for the ZPD." Judy said. "If he ever got in a snag like we could, he could easily tell him and inform the ZPD about it. Frankly Nick, I _really, really_ hope it doesn't come down to it but no matter how small that chance is, we can never be too sure."

Nick was think about the possibility, but it wasn't something he wanted to admit could possibly happen. "… You're sure this money will help us if we ever get in trouble?"

"Well, it will help us from the start when we have to either lay low or plan to go back."

Nick thought about it for another moment before deciding. "Only because I've got you're word on this and makes you think this is going to be beneficial for us if things do indeed get messy, I will take it."

Judy let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks Nick, you really have no idea how much this means to me."

"Oh I can imagine." Nick said. "But listen, I got to get going because we got work tomorrow and Amber probably wants me to watch some sort of girly reality show with her again."

Judy giggled. "Alright, here." She said giving Nick two stacks of ten thousand dollarz each. "Take good care of it, and in general try not to get into anything unnecessary with that stuff."

"What, now you're starting to not trust me with it?"

"No, not at all Nick." Judy replied. "It's just that money is one of the biggest temptations out there no matter the animal you're talking to. Try not to get any funny ideas is all I'm saying."

 _"_ _Every girl I talk to just has to sound like my mother don't they?"_ Nick thought.

* * *

December 23rd, 2017, six days later

Christmas time was nearing once more and bright shining lights could be seen on nearly every house or apartment window you would walk by. Judy had already made plans ahead of time to go and visit her family again, mostly to be there for the hard times all of them were going through after still no evidence found on the location of her father.

Danny at the same time continued to spend it with his dad and brother as he always would. He was already feeling guilty about his mother while walking inside, but reminded himself he would've felt even guiltier if he hadn't come. Nick meanwhile would have spent Christmas with his friends and family, but he still couldn't find anyone available for that year either so he had it with Amber again at his place.

Z on the other paw decided to take a few days off until the holidays were over since he thought it would be the perfect time for some more bonding he never had with his only daughter Zoe. That, and his problems at work were ones he wanted to get away from for a while before returning to them. Most of those problems however ended up being high ranked officials thinking they have everything under control, and making moves on the streets he didn't seem to like considering he always had to coordinate to different places for his buyers to meet at now.

He never like being put under pressure from a mayor like Leodore Lionheart, especially because he despised his methods of ever needing to solve a large problem Zootopia would be facing. He knows he is being put in a tight box once again, now that he has been facing problems left and right which could ruin his reputation for the second time.

Z however mainly disliked Lionheart for a completely different reason. Every time a press conference was held to discuss the process of dealing with his business, he kept referring to it as nothing but petty animals looking for a few bucks fresh off the streets. Worst of all, he even said it was as containable of a situation at it was with former mayor Bellwether. Z wasn't one who ever thought about politics and whatnot, but if that lion continued to give the animals of Zootopia an act of false hope, he sooner or later would have no choice but to do something about it.

It was evening time when Z and his daughter decided to bake some ginger cookies for the spirit of the holidays when something peculiar happened. "It says here we need molasses for these cookies." Zoe said, as she and her father were mixing up some ingredients the cook book told them to use. "I've never even heard of molasses. Is molasses even a word dad?"

"Well clearly you never studied anything about the ingredients of cooking." Z said.

"Well I _would_ , but mom always ended up cooking for me." Zoe claimed. "And I don't know, I guess it kind of felt like a habit I never got rid of since back when I was six, I always assumed mom would be feeding me for the rest of my life."

"Well then this should be a great way for you to start learning about it if I may say so." Z said. "And come on sweetie, you got to admit starting it on ginger cookies is the best way to start off first time cooking. You're learning something and eating sweets at the same time!"

Zoe laughed. "Well I guess that's true. But I'm just wondering, have you ever baked ginger cookies before?"

"Not once in my life, I just found a recipe online and thought it'd be the best place to start." Z admitted. "I guess I kind of thought, how march harder is it to bake cookies than to make pizza?"

" _Probably_ a lot." Zoe replied. "And you blame me for not learning a thing about cooking in my life." She shot back.

"Har har." Z said smiling back. "So by the way I've been meaning to ask you earlier today, who's Justin?"

Zoe's whole body completely froze after having been asked the most difficult question a father could ask to their daughter. "U-um, w-w-why do you ask?"

"I saw you two with your arms wrapped around each other from the entrance door as I was picking you up from school."

 _"_ _Oh crap, I knew I should have watched when and where I was holding him, stupid, stupid, stupid!"_ Zoe thought. "How… Hold on, how do you know his name in the first place?"

"He left a message on the phone you didn't seem to hear saying you left your science textbook in class again." Z answered. "So…. Who is he?"

Zoe for now wasn't too keen on getting into specifics, especially when her father was asking. "He's… just a good friend of mine I may happen to sit next to in a few of my classes."

Z cocked an eyebrow. "How good of a friend, if I may ask?"

Zoe gave her dad a dead eye look after asking that. "I'm not _doing it_ with him if you're so concerned." She stated.

Z flabbergasted himself. "I asked no such thing Zoe, I was just wanting some clarification about your interests is all."

Zoe rolled her eyes knowing her father was over exaggerating. "Look dad, I'm not that little girl you used to know when I was five anymore. I'm almost eighteen now, soon to be going off to college and I feel like it's not a crime to be going out with someone. Not to mention how ironic it is that half the animals I have classes with have had relationships ever since they graduated from elementary."

"Oh I am certainly aware of how the teenage life of an animal works by now, not to worry Zoe." Z assured. "But like any father, they just want to ensure their little girl is in a relationship they will be happy with."

"Psshhh, you keep thinking like that and see where it gets fathers like yourself in life."

" _DING, DONG."_

The doorbell suddenly rang which caught Z's attention seeing as how he would rarely ever get any visitors at this time. Ever since the incident with Richard has happened, he and his crew have been carrying weapons on them inside their own homes every now and then as a sign of precaution. Luckily for him, today was one of those days where he had one on him at the moment.

"Who do you think that could be?" Zoe asked.

"I suppose we're about to find out." Z said, as he was walking over to the door. He slowly reached for his back pocket as he twisted the knob and opened the door. But to his surprise, a ZPD officer was standing in front of him. After realizing who it was, he reached away from his back pocket. "Oh hello officer, is there anything you would like to inform us about this evening?"

"Mr. Stripes I'm officer Snarlbuff from the Zootopia Police Department, and I was wondering if I could come in to ask you a few questions in regards to some cases which have been brought up in recent events if you don't mind." The officer explained.

Z knew straight away this couldn't have been a good sign. "I'm sorry but if I may ask, what's this all about?" He asked.

"It's in regards to the case about your ex-wife's shooting."

Z turned around to make sure Zoe wasn't listening in on the conversation. "Um… would it be okay to talk about it in the cruiser you seem to have parked out front right there?" He asked pointing to the police cruiser. "It's just that my daughter has already been going through some rough times because of her mother's passing, and she just doesn't want to over live the experience again when hearing specific talks about what happened… that night."

Snarlbuff nodded. "By all means sir." He said, as he began to walk back to his cruiser.

Z knew Zoe would get a little suspicious from a cop coming in and asking private questions, so he walked back over to her and tried to persuade her it was nothing worth worrying about. "Listen sweetie, that officer just wants be to go outside and over to his cruiser for a moment and ask a few simple questions about certain things. Don't worry though it's nothing to be worried about, just some of those asking the neighborhoods if they've seen anything kind of deals."

"Is this about mom?" Zoe asked turning her head in Z's direction.

"I-" Z paused himself. "Okay, I admit, he may have to ask me some questions in regards to your mother, but you should know I never asked for this to happen to her ever."

"Neither did I." Zoe said depressingly.

Z didn't see much of a point in continuing a conversation which would most likely turn into another argument, so he turned around, put some shoes on and went out the door. He was a little cold since he wasn't used to the climate, but he still managed to reach Officer Snarlbuff's cruiser without catching a cold along the way.

"So what kind of questions do you have for me officer?" Z asked.

"Well to be open about this situation, we have reasons to believe you are a participator in one of the biggest illegal weapon manufacturing businesses in all of Zootopia."

Z pretended to be so shocked at that accusation, he was laughing out loud. "No offense officer, but I think you're one-too many steps off of that trail. What even gives you the wildest idea that I am a part of it? I'm an accountant who works at famous Piggy Bank, and nothing more to say than that."

"Well Mr. Stripes on normal circumstances I would find it absurd too believe me, but you can't deny the fact your ex-wife being involved in something which didn't seem like she was meant to be involved isn't something we can be able to ignore. Now I understand you two used to share custody of your daughter Zoe Stripes, but can you please explain to me why you two separated in the first place?"

"Forgive me officer, but I don't see how that has anything to do with my ex-wife's kidnapping."

"I understand your reasoning Mr. Stripes, but right now we need all the information we can get if we want to be fully sure you aren't a part of any of this." Snarlbuff informed. "Would you like me to repeat the question so you can think about it?"

Z sighed. "Forgive me for saying it, but I had an affair at the time we ere both still together." He lied.

"An affair?" Snarlbuff asked surprised.

"Yes, but it was more of a misunderstanding if you ask me." Z said. "You see, I met this other female animal online because both of us didn't seem to be getting along with each other as well as we thought it would be. I guess I thought I needed to talk to someone about the problems I was facing with her, and finding someone I had no idea about felt like the right thing to do in my mind. But eventually she found the anonymous emails we sent each other and sooner or later left with my kit."

"Interesting…" Snarlbuff said, as he was writing notes down in his notebook with the information Z gave him. "And your line of work is, as you said an accountant correct?"

"Yes it is."

"I also see you've had some very big and famous clients which you served along your line of work." Snarlbuff said, as he was going through his profile. "You seem to be quite the professional at managing money well enough for even the big cheeses around the city."

"Well, just like how one would get good at a sport, all it takes is years of knowledge working in the same industry." Z said. "I'm sure the same experience works for your fellow officers."

"It depends on who you're asking the question to." Snarlbuff said. "Now Mr. Stripes, if I may be perfectly honest with you, the main suspicions which have been raised on you are because of what has happened under the circumstances of your ex-wife Francine Stripes."

"And I would actually be surprised if you weren't after all this time officer." Z said. "I can see why you would consider me a suspect due to my relationships with your past cases, but I still believe it to be a hideous act of treachery brought to my family as you wouldn't know one day…. Someone you loved just gets shot right in the bloody head? It brings nothing but sadness to me…. To anyone really if you think about it."

"I understand sir." Snarlbuff said, as he understood Mr. Stripes' claims of what was simply an unexplained attack from a crazy animal with a gun. "However, it's not the only thing we're concerned about with you."

Z still didn't like the road of conversation they were still moving upon. "Officer, are you sure we can't discuss any of this in the morning because I'm really not in the mood for this at the moment, especially with you bringing up things I want to move away from."

"It's crucial to understand if we want to get a better understanding of you so we can keep you off the ZPD's hook for the time being Mr. Stripes." Snarlbuff replied. "Now there was one more thing we discovered about you and not to purposely bring up bad memories, but over the span of only three weeks when you were young, your whole family was murdered."

Z wasn't sure whether keep in or let out all the hate going through him with some of his darkest memories coming back to him. "Jesus I… I don't think I would like to discuss what happened during that time if it's alright with you." He said shaking and panting a little. "I… I can't…. I don't want to over live something like that ever again, the thought of it is just too unbearable for me to even comprehend."

Snarlbuff sighed as he should have assumed this mammal would react this way to his past. He was going to ask him about the certain incident of his mother's death with a gun possession involved, but knew it was unlikely he would ever want to even look at a gun again after what happened.

"Alright, then I suppose that's all I wanted to ask you about for now, but I will give you a call if anything new comes up about your ex-wife's case Mr. Stripes." Snarlbuff explained. "You're free to go now."

"Thank you officer, and I really do hope you find out more about what was behind that animals motives." Z said, as he got out of the cruiser and closed the door.

 _"_ _What could it have been that Bogo saw in this animal in which he wanted me to go question him about in private?"_ Snarlbuff thought. _"He gave me the answers I wanted, and he seemed to be genuinely emotional about all the things I was bringing up about him. This doesn't make any sense…"_

After a few more moments of debating in Snarlbuff's mind about the thought of Mr. Stripes being a suspect or not, he started the engine on the cruiser and drove away from the streets."

 _"_ _Damn it all to hell."_ Z thought, as he watched the police cruiser driving away from his street through the window. _"How could they have figured it out, there was not a single trace of evidence left from that night…. I made sure there was no evidence to be found from either fricking animals!"_

"So what did you guys talk about?" Zoe asked walking towards her father.

"Probably what you expected us to talk about." Z answered. "But for your own sake, I'd prefer if you didn't ask me to go into the details of it."

"For my own sake, now what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Zoe, I don't have time for any bickering right now." Z said beginning to feel frustrated. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's some calls I'm going to have to make now."

"Dad you're kind of starting to freak me out here, what sort of _calls_?"

Z groaned under his breath. "Just lawyers and stuff so the public doesn't end up making a big deal of all of this considering it's a misunderstanding."

"Well what's the misunderstanding?"

 _"_ _I don't have time to chitter chatter with her, I'm nearing defeat here if it's what I assume is going to happen soon."_ Z thought. "Look, I'll tell you more about this tomorrow because these kind of calls are most likely going to be an all-nighter for me. Trust me sweetie, I don't want to have to do this to you, but my reputation seems to be on the line here now."

Zoe sighed. "Fine, whatever makes you _happy_."

Z chose to ignore that tone of sass Zoe was giving him and focus more on how he was going to deal with the situation he was seeming to be put under now. He went into his room making sure Zoe wasn't listening or watching before closing the door. He then went over to a picture frame on the wall and pressed one of the little golden colored dots on it. When that happened, part of the inside of the frame slid open showing a notebook attached to it.

This notebook however wasn't just any ordinary notebook Z would usually keep with him. This notebook contained every name and phone number of ever buyer, crew member, or respected business mammals who have done work for him only the most professional would be able to take care of, at least with a very low chance of getting caught. Every now and then, he would mostly end up using it in case if he came across anyone new, or needing to scratch someone's name off if they are at the very least presumed dead.

But this was a special occasion. The ZPD were now starting to close in on him because of Bogo, and he needed to do something about it. Aside from that, Lionheart has also become a threat of Z's now due to his encouragement to the city of staying strong through the tough times. He wasn't taking it seriously, but Z believed Lionheart didn't actually know who he was messing with, and making claims like it being nothing but child's play when comparing it to the night howlers case. That on the other paw, _really_ began to get on Z's bad side.

As he was looking through the notebook, he eventually came across just the right phone numbers. Dialing the numbers on the phone, he hoped there were still animals around who would be able to pick up the phone, and sure enough there was.

 _"_ _State your business sir."_ The animal said on the other line.

"It's Z." Z replied. "Listen, I understand it has been quite some time since we last did business with each other, but I am willing to pay a very high sum of money if you can do what I need you to do without anything that could be traced back to me."

" _We're listening."_ The animal said.

"Now the ZPD have been all over my tail in these past few months all because a stupid fennec made some noises which caught their attention." Z explained. "I believe they're starting to narrow down who's responsible for all of it. Now I don't want to rush you with any of this, but what I'm about to request from you is something I need to be done as soon as possible before they can find even a hair of evidence to point back to an arrest of any sort."

* * *

"So, have you watched this movie before?" Amber asked munching on some popcorn, as she and Nick were on the couch watching a random movie on TV.

"Hmm, I may have, but then again my memory could still be a little foggy." Nick replied munching on some popcorn as well. "I think it takes place sometime back in the 1940's and it's about about this little rabbit girl who gets kidnapped and taken away from her mother, father and five other siblings, but manages to escape. However, she wasn't sure where to go or how to get back seeing as they drove for two days straight away from her home. Luckily, she has some other fellow companions along the way who also want to get to where she's going, even though they aren't positive how to get there either."

"Eh, sounds like a two out of five kind of movie if you ask me." Amber figured. "To me it sounds like a story which would be better if telling it from a bug's point of view."

Nick laughed. "Trust me, it is pretty good."

As the two foxes were watching the movie, there was something on Nick's mind he wanted to get off of, but always ended up shifting it aside for the past few months. Amber began to notice the expression of concern on his face.

"Is there something on your mind Nick?"

"Amber, there's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while now but I've just never found the right time to bring up."

 _"_ _Oh god, he's not proposing is he?"_ Amber thought. _"Not that I don't like the idea but, now of all times Nick?"_

"Amber, you still there?"

Amber then got off of her own thoughts and back to paying attention to Nick. "U-uh yea I'm still here silly. Go ahead, say whatever's on your mind then."

"Well a few months back, I overheard one of the conversations you had with Judy the night Finnick shot Danny and we had to bring him over to my apartment." Nick confessed. "It's just, she did bring up a good point because you don't actually have to stay here anymore. Z already confronted us and knows well enough you won't be saying anything to anyone, and frankly he's got more on his paws to deal with right now than you."

"What's your point?"

"Well the point I'm trying to make is, why are you still here?" Nick asked. "It's too dangerous for you to be in the city as it is and something tells me you can easily find another animal from your previous concepts to make a new identity for you out there so you don't become involved with Z again."

Even Amber realized it herself after all this time, but felt somewhat instinctive to stay somewhere in her head. "I, uh…"

There was only one logical reason behind it, and Nick in fact laughed to himself at the thought of it. "Heh, I should've seen it sooner." Nick said. "You're in love with me aren't you?"

"…" Amber was lost for words over embarrassment. "What, that's… that's an outrageous comment!"

Nick smiled. "But you're not denying it."

"I can't believe after this entire time you would think I could actually grow feelings for you!" Amber shouted. "You are so not my type, especially with the attitude you've always brought on me which by the way, isn't considered attractive in my books. And in conclusion, you are without a doubt the least sly and understandable fox I have ever met!"

There was an awkward silence between the two foxes. "So…." Nick said hoping to be more to what she was saying.

Amber still had that prissy little face on her as if she thought herself as more superior than Nick. But only a few seconds later did she break it. "Oh screw it." She said, as she instantly grabbed Nick's shirt and pulled him over to where they soon ended up touching lips. "There, satisfied enough Nick?"

Nick smiled back. "I don't know, you tell me."

"Hmm, yea it's not enough yet." Amber replied, as Nick was now laying with his back on the couch with Amber's paws on both sides of his shoulders.

"Well, this is a little better." Nick said.

"What, were you really expecting worse from a vixen like myself Mr. Wilde?" Amber asked blushing a little.

"I've seen worse before many times Amber, and I'm sure you have also, and I say that in a non-sexual kind of way." Nick said with words simply coming out of his mouth now."

"You and I have been through a lot Nick, I think it's time we eased the pain a little." She said, as she slowly went down began to kiss the side of his neck a little. "Besides, how can things get anymore worse from here?"

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 40, Y**


	41. Y

**Chapter 40: Y**

December 28th, 2017, five days later

"Have you come across any new leads on this Zamiel Stripes zebra over the past few days of investigating Snarlbuff?" Bogo asked, as he had called Snarlbuff up to his office for any information he may have found when trailing Mr. Stripes for the past few days.

"Not so far, it's almost as if he's too good to be true quite frank." Snarlbuff replied. "He leaves for work at about seven in the morning, goes to the piggy bank where he works to see some clients, has lunch at exactly twelve interestingly at any nearby restaurants, drives home at about six or seven, no other suspicious activity heard or seen from the blinds inside the house. Most of the noises I ever hear involves raging over a video game from his kit."

"So normal worker, normal parent and most importantly, normal animal huh?" Bogo said. "Indeed, it does sound too good to be true, especially with his former wife having passed so recently."

"So would you say this guy's off the hook then?" Snarlbuff asked. "This mammal doesn't seem to resemble towards any characteristics we've seen or heard from, from the animals we have come across in regards to the weapon manufacturers."

"It may be so, but then again it also takes an animal to know calculations and professionalism to run a large criminal organization such as this without any knowledge of it from the ZPD." Bogo said. "Mr. Big is a liability we've been catching on for quite some time and he is not afraid to show his name to anyone he meets. However, the head of this organization is no ordinary animal. To my theory on him or her, they're a mammal who simply tries to blend in with everyone else. I mean, who can become suspicious of their own peers right? Its animal nature to trust one who seems to fit in to a society and living by the law in which has been put under them by the city."

"So we're looking for someone whose adapted to society's rules in plain sight, as well as a professional with years of experience not just as a criminal, but the work in which they do for the animals of Zootopia huh?" Snarlbuff wondered, as Bogo nodded his head. "Hmm, well if I were to say the only suspicious thing about Mr. Stripes is he's… in a way, too perfect."

"Possibly." Bogo said. "We don't have anything at the moment in which we can lay charges on him for, but I would still like you to continue your investigation on him. This is the only good theory we've had in over six months now and I do _not_ want to run into anymore dead ends with this case if we want to ensure this city stays safe."

"Forgive me for asking this Chief but, why haven't we informed anyone else about the theories on the suspicious animals like Mr. Stripes you're looking into, as well as giving only myself to do the stakeouts you're requiring from me?"

"Because we don't want any of those criminals out there to know we could possibly be onto them if that's the case." Bogo explained. "Once we find enough evidence off of just one of these names to order an arrest, we would be able to finally retain the media's side on this and can be of a big use to us if they were to report any suspicious activity whatsoever on the streets. If we can be able to accomplish that, then we may finally be able to put a stop to these animals once and for all."

Snarlbuff nodded to himself while still processing Bogo's explanation. "Hmm, I suppose that's true because the media as of now is in fact causing us problems to sort out with claims going around everywhere left and right with animals saying we can't do our jobs right."

"It's bad enough at dark times like these." Bogo said. "I've been having non-stop calls from the mayor about it, saying he's been hearing everywhere on the streets about the animals still selling illegal weaponry without us noticing. There was even this one talk we had about myself thinking I should turn in my badge."

"Jeez…" Snarlbuff said. "But I assume it's another reason you suspect this Stripes guy after all isn't it? Your theory on the head of the organization being a professional and well-known helper to Zootopia, who may use the knowledge to his advantage by creating what this animal would refer to as, unimaginable to the city. Not only that, it takes a good enough genius to pinpoint where the ZPD is most likely to look at every time, and every day of the week no matter if we even decide to change it up."

"Yes it does which is why at all costs, we cannot ever underestimate this group whatsoever, because of that one animal who runs it all and keeps it afloat." Bogo said. "This is by far the most difficult case I have come across in my career. The opponent I am up against is like no other criminal I have ever seen in my years working as an officer and Chief in Zootopia. They somehow are always able to stay one step ahead of us no matter what we try to throw in their way."

"Well, all we can do now is hope that faith is really on our side with this Stripes guy." Snarlbuff said. "Alright, well I should probably be heading back to my shift now because there was a speeding report me and Higgins did today which Mchorn wanted to talk to me about in regards to verification."

"By all means Snarlbuff, I believe we've had a nice enough chat for one afternoon." Bogo said. "But remember, I would still like you to be investigating this Zamiel Stripes animal for further understanding of him. We need as much information as we can on him before we can be able to make a move on providing evidence to make an arrest."

"Yes sir." Snarlbuff said, as he got up from his chair and walked out of the room.

 _"_ _It's either us or Z…"_ Bogo thought, still thinking about what he learned from Judy and Nick, as well as the SWAT team from that night in the abandoned business building. _"The fact that we have our suspicions on a character, who also happens to have the same uncommon letter for a first letter in a name, as the fennec fox had said before he was gunned down mustn't be a coincidence. One thing… just one little piece of evidence might just do it for closing this case, locking it up and throwing the key away."_

* * *

 _"_ _What do you want now, I thought I made it perfectly clear I don't want any other interactions with you for my own safety."_ Judy said, as Biggy had phoned her just now.

"It's nice to hear from you too." Biggy said sarcastically. "And you were right, you made it crystal clear for me not to. But maybe I don't care enough to follow orders from a dumb bunny like yourself."

" _Cut the drama act Biggy and just tell me what you want."_

"Well I just thought I should let you know Z's beginning to prepare for something." Biggy informed. "I'm not sure what it is exactly he's preparing, but it has something to do with the ZPD, and certain other things he say and I quote is 'in his way'."

Judy could tell by now that whenever Z was planning for something, it was never anything minor, nor something to not worry about. _"… How did you find out about this?"_

"He told me." Biggy replied. "But this certain case is rather odd. Z only ever informs his private situations about something big or important about the business to animals he can trust, or animals who have been with him for a very, very long time. But in this case, all he ever tell us is that he's planning something… something that he can't even tell any other crew member of ours most likely because he worries it's going to get leaked to the public somehow."

 _"_ _Sweet cheese and…"_ Judy murmured, knowing in Z's standards of not even informing his crew, this had to mean something big. " _Well you've known him for long enough, what do you think this is supposed to imply in regards to the limits he will go to, to get what he wants?"_

"I'm not sure yet, that's the part I'm still trying to work out." Biggy admitted. "I've seen what this animal can do both physically and mentally, and I know the kind of power he's got and the animals he knows but this? This isn't some silly gunning down in an alleyway kind of situation we're talking about here."

 _"_ _Well, can you at least tell me what Z told you in regards to this mission he seems to want to keep so private from everyone who works for him?"_

Biggy thought about it. "Hmm, well only to the knowledge I've been given by him, they're calling whatever mission it is, operation Y."

 _"_ _Operation Y?"_ Judy asked. _"Is there a reason they have only a letter as a name of an operation?"_

"The animals he works with, as well as well as his own personal ones are always named differently." Biggy replied. "Sometimes they can go from a code name of just one letter, to ten or twenty words if they wanted to. Either way, they use these names for the tasks in case if they are ever in a situation where they are being spied on by the police, at least they wouldn't be aware of what the course of action will be for that operation."

 _"_ _So you're saying if the letter Y were to come up for any of the animals Z is talking to, they'll know its private information about the things they're getting paid to successfully manage?"_

"it's how they would consider their statuses on professionalism, yes." Biggy answered. "The typical hit mammals you would typically see on the streets are far more skilled from the ones Z calls up. I don't know how he can even remember all of his contacts by now, but whoever he calls up for a certain job, it's always and I mean _always_ the best animals for the job."

 _"_ _You really are trying to make it sound worse than it already is aren't you?"_ Judy asked, beginning to feel a little nervous about what Biggy is telling her about. _"Alright well, is there anyone else besides the animals you work for which you've told already about this operation Y Z's told you about?"_

"Nobody else except the one and only Chip."

The name Chip immediately shot Judy's ears up from the ground. _"Hold on a minute, is this the same Chip you're referring to that was sent to prison to stay with our relatives until he soon escaped with a few casualties along the road?"_

"Yep, that's right." Biggy replied. "I heard about what happened at the cells on the same day he escaped and that your father was the only living relative left to still continue to feed the three of you some motivation. But I don't see a point in doing an act Z did to one relative of each of you five seeing as how Z's probably powerful enough to silence all of your families with one call, if the situation present is more severe than we think it is."

 _"_ _It might have just been a panicking technique he was trying to use on us then."_ Judy predicted. _"Back then he didn't seem to believe in us enough to feel confident we wouldn't try to do anything stupid like telling the police."_

"Well when you put it that way, you're probably right." Biggy said. "But as I was saying, Chip is most likely an enemy of Z's now and the more you've got on your side, the better. I'm doing the same thing with what Nick's doing with that vixen lover of his and am keeping him on a constant low profile from the city. Even if I took him to the ZPD by now, it will still be traced back to me and will put myself and my _own_ family in danger. And not to criticise your fellow officers or anything, but bribery can do all sorts of things including dealing with Chip even if he was inside the ZPD."

Judy sighed. _"Yes, I'm aware of that fact and to be honest, I would know a few of my fellow colleagues who are actually willing to do such a thing if the price is right, but luckily I'd say it's only five percent of officers in this city who would."_

"So now what then?" Biggy asked. "How do you propose you handle this situation?"

 _"_ _Well, why the hell are you asking me, aren't you supposed to be close enough to Z you can convince him to lay off whatever it is he has in stock for whatever's coming?"_

"Because other than Chip, you and what's left of your little militia group are all that I have let to talk to about what's happening." Biggy replied. "Hell, even if I made an anonymous phone call to the police about this attack, Z will still figure out it's me. He was already able to do it to Chip all those months back, and unfortunately I myself isn't very different no matter how you may want to look at it."

 _"_ _Biggy, I don't…"_ Judy said hesitating. _"I don't know what you want me to do about it. You're making it sound bad like Z has already got us at every corner you can see. What more can I do which Z hasn't prepared for yet, huh? How in the world do you think you can expect me to do anything about it without getting a bullet put in my head?"_

"Because like I said, no matter how pathetic it is, Chip, you and your friends are all I got to work with on this." Biggy answered slightly angry. "If you can at least do me the favor of keeping yours and Mr. Wilde's eyes open any place close to, or even inside the ZPD, then hopefully it should be enough to know for sure whether or not he's really planning to create some form of attack inside the place itself."

 _"_ _Well, I mean I guess Nick and myself can be able to manage that, but we wouldn't even know where we're supposed to keep our eyes on."_ Judy said. _"Judging from how large the ZPD building is, it would take us the whole day itself just to look in every direction for a possible opening for some sort of an attack."_

"Just do what you two can about it, and keep your eyes peeled on anywhere you would most or even least expect them to go through. Remember, Z hires the best of the best. So as a matter of fact, you even see so much as a suspicious blowing of wind, you're going to need to stay cautious at all costs."

 _"_ _Alright I understand it already Biggy, no need for a whole presentation about it thank you very much."_ Judy said trying to cut the conversation short. _"I'll inform Nick about it the next time I meet him, but now that you bring this up, I'm positive I'm going to need a good night's sleep now that I have something else to be stressing about on the back of my mind now."_

"Glad I could be of some services to you, and oh yea, how about a little thing called _you're welcome?"_ Biggy asked. However, right after Biggy said that, he realized by then she had already hung up the phone. He then started the van and continued on the way back to his home, but more commonly referred to Biggy as his 'personal shack'.

* * *

December 29th, 2017, the next morning

 _"_ _Z, Daniel Wolford has just arrived to the store, would you like me to bring him in?"_ Z's assistant Britney asked coming from Z's speakers on the phone.

"Yes I would, thank you Britney." Z replied. "I would like you to send someone outside for a check around the area to make sure there are no cop cars around, we've been having problems with the police lately. Also, I'd like you to send someone else to bring him straight towards my office and tell them to walk away from the door afterward. This is a private matter which I would like to talk with him about and no one else."

 _"_ _Will do sir."_ Britney replied, while hanging up the phone on her end.

Z had been expecting Danny for quite some time now. Every other animal he called, there just didn't seem to be one who was accurate enough for this mission to work. But when he remembered reading through Danny's profile and learning about what he was capable of, he knew he would be the perfect animal for this job. Only a few moments later did he soon hear the knock on his door.

"The doors open." Z said, as he saw Danny walking inside. "Please have a seat in front of me if you will." He said pointing to the chairs in front of him.

Danny then plopped himself on the middle chair in front of Z. "I don't know what you think you want from me, but whatever it is just so you know, I'm not agreeing to it."

"We'll see about that, if you truly are desperate enough." Z said. "After all, first it was your mother whom by the way also had a helping paw in causing two more of my crew members to die back in the sewers. And no matter if she's dead already to have me do the job myself, I don't let situations like that slide easily."

"So what are you going to do now then, kill me?" Danny asked. "Most likely not though considering you would have already done it by now."

"I'll get to that when the times right." Z replied in a serious tone. "Now as I recall from a certain meeting we had back sometime in February, we discussed many interesting things about yourself and your own personality which resembles you as the animal you truly are. Now I remember from our conversation that you were pretty good with a rifle, am I correct?"

"Well, it was a BB rifle, something that's _totally_ different from what you would be using."

"That doesn't matter, I'm referring to your skills with accuracy." Z said. "I read the reports from that day and it seems like every animal who went by seemed to have been hit with your little dart balls! Now I got to say, that may have been a _really real_ screwed up thing to do especially after what happened to that little girl, but you showed some _real_ skills being able to hit all of your targets like that. It's even something I've never seen anyone I know do before, and you didn't even have a sight on the rifle!"

"It was my life's habit, of course I got pretty good with it." Danny stated. "But after with what happened to that kit and the accident… I threw in the towel ages ago."

"Yes I know, and it's the right thing to do if you were to still be considered sane." Z agreed. "But your skills such as aiming exactly on sight even with a moving target, measuring the angle you have to shoot at with the speed the wind's going, it's not just any shooter who can shoot that well."

 _"_ _I've got a really bad feeling now at what he's going to be asking me to do…"_ Danny thought. "If what I presume is what you're actually asking me to do Z, I'm not going to do it."

"Oh, and what is it you think I'll be asking you to do then?"

"You're going to ask me to assassinate someone, aren't you?"

There was an awkward silence for a moment between the two mammals. But out of nowhere, Z gave Danny a smile that would be hard to forget. Danny at this moment began to feel a little worried for himself seeing as how he doesn't want to do this. All he felt like doing now was sprinting from the basement storage and running out of the cheesecake store as fast as he could. But since he couldn't do that, he simply sat frozen in shock.

"I guess you're quicker on figuring this stuff out than I thought you'd be." Z said. "Look, I get it. You've never actually killed someone before and you're not interested in starting now or probably never. But you are my best and only good option for this mission. If you get enough practice in for a few days with some of the sniper rifles I got, you will be a pro at it in no time. Not only that, animals here are never expecting assassination plots on a typical and average kind of day without the weapons which I do possess. There shouldn't be a problem with you getting away if you do hear cops coming your way."

"Do you actually think getting away with it is what's on my mind right now?!" Danny shouted.

Z thought about it and chuckled a little. "No, I suppose not."

"So what in your _bloody_ twisted mind makes you think that I would something even remotely close to that?"

"The same answer I gave you the first time we met." Z replied. "If you don't help us, the animals close to you might just end up paying the price instead."

Danny's body filled with rage on Z immediately turned to complete paleness as fear was now brought into his body once more. _"You sick basterd…"_ Danny thought. _"That's why you brought up my mother's death… to make me understand that more of my family's lives are still on the line here."_

 _"_ So, if we have an understanding with each other Mr. Wolford I'd like to proceed with the details on this." Z said. "Personally, I don't give a crap whether or not you've ever capped somebody. Frankly you three have pissed me off even more by going to such a high point, you tried to fake four other animal's deaths by showing decayed bodies of _our_ victims. Well this time, there is no easy route or loop hole you can take this time. You either take out the target, or I'll send some of my guys over to take care of your family, and then take care of you personally just like I did with that chubby cheetah fella. That is how I do things with animals like you, I'm sorry but business is business."

Danny realized he was probably going to regret this for the rest of his remaining life, but that's when he asked himself what other choices he had. "… _What will I get out of doing this?"_ He asked in a deep tone.

"I'm glad you asked that Danny." Z replied. "The answer would be immunity for your family." He said, as Danny's face and ears shot straight up from facing the ground. "That's right, under any circumstance which may occur between you or anyone else for that matter, I shall not lay a single paw on your family ever. But that doesn't mean I can guarantee _you_ having immunity. I'm still going to need you to work for me a little while longer seeing as how every one of my buyers have considered you all professionals at what you do. Lucky for you, some have even gotten to the point where they say they won't make a trade with us unless at least one of you three are there."

Danny tried to think hard about the bargain he was getting out of this. _"My family will remain safe… I'll never have to worry twenty-four seven about them after this. I don't know, is a mammals life really worth the protection of my family? Then again, it doesn't even seem like I have much of a choice in the matter since after all, this is Z I'm talking with about this here."_

"Now for you to understand the matter as it is, I should let you know that it will be happening very soon." Z stated. "In fact, later today the first part of it is going to be taking place. Let's just say, today will be a way of showing Zootopia just how serious we really are with opinions from even high ranks. Well, at least opinions we really need to show for no animals to get any funny ideas about being the hero and whatnot. You on the other paw will be starting your mission on the same day I've already got a team of animals preparing for another group that needs some better understanding to go along with everyone else, especially since they're not fooled as easily."

"…." Danny tried to think about what to say next that didn't make Z sound like the psychotic zebra he always knew him as from the start. "…. Who is this animal you want me to kill?"

"Well, here's his profile." Z said, handing the profile of the mammal over to Danny. "I'm sure you recognize this animal by now, any animal should at this point."

Danny then began to feel like he was going to have a panic attack, as he began panting non-stop from seeing the profile of the mammal in front of him. " _No,_ this can't be." He mumbled. _"This can't be…"_

* * *

Later that day

Rock Sinvarto prison. A place not too far from Zootopia, but far enough to catch anyone who tried to escape that they wouldn't be able to make their way there by the end. It also just so happened to be the one and only place where Bellwether and most of her Hench mammals were currently being locked up as well. All they ever did was sit there reflecting on the actions they have brought upon others, and watch anything that was on the only news channel they ever got from inside the prison.

Day and night Bellwether had always tried to think of a way out of all that she's been through with a few years behind bars. Most of the time she would try to plan an escape, but it would always end up getting found out or the plan itself was not thought out enough. Other times she would think about the first things she wanted to do when she got out of here in another twenty-five years.

Then again, when you poison dozens of predators in a city and try to take over the predators with the majority of the prey population, not everyone is very welcoming towards you afterward. _"Maybe I should just get a new identity…"_ Bellwether thought. _"Something that fits me like Clarabelle or something when I get out of this stinkhole. It's bad enough some stupid lion took my glasses from me and smooshed it in into a pancake."_

Some days she simply couldn't take the thought of spending one more day in the cells, away from what the rest of the world had to offer. But at the end of the day, she was thankful to not have been alone in the process of all this as she still did have her ram crew from the night howlers case, who also got caught in the aftermath to look after her when in a hard situation. They may have been given a shorter sentencing than her, but she thought by the time that came, she could look out for herself.

That is, until it happened. It was the afternoon of a Friday, which to some inmates assumed was a day for them to lay back a bit and remind themselves of the sanity they still had in them as most of the animals who were in this prison had been there for more than ten years. Lunch was served for everyone and they all went to their own private areas to not be disturbed, while Bellwether and most of her rams took a seat at a nearby table to eat what they hoped was some form of squished meat.

"You're a little silent today aren't you Dawn?" Woolter, one of the rams at the table asked. "Usually you're quite the chatter box with escape plans all of us can be a part of.

"Cut it out Woolter, you know there's nothing we can do about that anymore." Jesse, another one of Bellwether's rams said. "We may as well just… wait it out until our times com for us to go."

"And how long is that going to be?" Doug, the creator of the night howlers serum and another one of Bellwether's rams asked. "I knew I shouldn't have taken this job. I knew what could happen if we were caught and I was right…. I was a part of a team with _multiple_ awards for our study in the chemicals of life and beyond, what did I actually throw all that away for? Were my opinions on predators actually worth going to jail for and now ruining my whole life's career?!"

"You knew damn well what you signed up for when joining us Doug." Woolter disagreed. "You must have been bored with what you were doing in the lab. Same old mixing with chemicals, same old writing and hypothesis's on the experiments, _boring_. I'm betting you wanted to do something that gave you a little excitement or passion with chemicals for once in your life."

"Tch." Doug said trying to swift it aside. "Dawn, can you believe what these guys are saying to me right now?"

Bellwether took a sip of water from her cup before responding. "It's not my business to understand your reasoning for becoming motivated to do this job, but you did say you would create the serums for us willingly. That's something you can't be able to deny no matter what way you look at it."

"See?" Woolter asked rubbing it in.

"Well you know what Woolter, maybe I eventually realized I didn't fit like I thought I would in that lab." Doug claimed. "Maybe I wanted to try something that felt right to me, not like any of you have already tried that. All of you should've known this would happen sooner or later because once they take one small look at their neck and find night howler residue on it, the whole thing would've been blown and all of what we've done would have meant nothing whatsoever."

"Doug, if no one ever took a gamble in their life, they're not animals." Bellwether disagreed. "You have a certain amount of odds sometimes and most of the time you want it to be in your favor. Sure, maybe it could mean a lot of trouble if you don't win, but when you still have good odds to bet on, it's your own instinct which decides for you."

"Hey guys I don't mean to disrupt, but we got a tiger coming toward us at twelve o clock." Jesse said, pointing to the tiger coming their way.

" _Who the hell is that?"_ Woolter whispered.

 _"_ _I don't know, but whoever it is I'm sure we can take him if it comes down to it."_ Doug said.

The rams knew this tiger wasn't wandering the same direction they happened to be seated at for a reason. And by the look of his facial expression, it didn't look like he was simply coming over to have a nice cup of tea with them. Finally he approached them right in front of Bellwether with the same dirty look.

"You lookin for some trouble boy?" Woolter asked trying to imitate him.

"No trouble with you at least, I'm here for her." The tiger replied, as he pointed to Bellwether.

"… You want to get to her, you're going to have to go through us." Jesse said, as he and the other rams stood up from their chair in a position to fight.

"I don't think you would want to be doing that sir." The tiger said.

"Oh yea, and what gives you the right to tell us what we can and can't do around here, eh slick?" Woolter asked. "You so much as _touch_ her, I will bash your teeth so hard into the wall you'll need to be eating soup for the rest of your life."

"Listen predator guy or whatever the heck your name is." Bellwether said, as she stood up from her chair in front of the tiger. "If you're here for a beating, I think you're just going to have to wait in line with you and the rest of your _kind._ "

The tiger smiled. "You know, saying that actually kind of makes me feel more unsympathetic now with what I'm about to do. But moreover, it's such a bummer I'm going to have to have the same thing happen to your friends. But with how they respond to me even in a prison with such a rude tone, it makes me wonder why it hasn't happened already."

Bellwether didn't seem to get her drift from what the tiger was implying. "Listen here buffy, I think you're going to have to be a little more specific than that if you don't want my boys to kick the stripes out of you."

The tiger nodded. "Fair enough, allow me to show you my full definition." He said, as he slid something out of the back of his pants.

 _"_ _STAB!"_

The tiger had then thrusted a large knife, big enough to be a machete with Bellwether's height straight through the stomach of Bellwether. For a moment, the three rams stood there in shock to what they just witnessed as they saw him pulling the large knife out of her while she collapsed to the floor.

"BELLWETHER!" Woolter shouted, as he began running towards the tiger. "YOU SON OF A-!"

" _SNAP."_

The tiger then snapped his fingers and out of nowhere, half a dozen more animals snuck up on the rams, grabbed them while wrapping their arms around their necks.

"WHAT IS THIS, WHO THE HELL DO YOU ANIMALS THINK YOU ARE?!" Jesse shouted.

"Animals who are given a certain job to do and doing it right." The tiger replied, as he nodded to the other mammals giving them the signal. The other mammals with a ram wrapped around their arms then took out knives of their own and placed it on their throats.

 _"_ _SLASH!"_

Every ram at once had then gotten their throats slashed open with the other mammals letting go to have them bleed out soon enough, as blood began turning into puddles all around the rams with Jesse falling onto the table and blood dripping on the floor.

"I'd say a job well done boys." The tiger complimented, as the other animals nodded their heads in agreement. The tiger made sure no other inmates would interfere and as expected, all of them were minding their own business. None of them were interested in getting into situations they knew would only have a bad outcome to themselves. "You guys start running, I'll meet you out back at the getaway truck." The tiger said, as the other animals started running towards the exit which was already unlocked.

He then walked over to where Bellwether was lucky enough to still be breathing and turned her over on her back as he bent down in front of her.

"I chose to do the honors of this mission for a reason, you know." The tiger said. "You made the orders to poison dozens and dozens of innocent predators everywhere around the city as if you thought you were the one with power…. One of them was my wife."

Bellwether was beginning to lose sight of the whole room. " _P-please…"_ She moaned. " _Don't… don't let me…"_

"She turned savage by the time I got home and nearly got to my daughters who were hiding in the closet from their own mother as she scratched at the door." The tiger said in anger. "They could have died that day, all of them could have…"

" _I… I didn't mean…"_

"YES YOU DID, everyone already knows you purposely did it for you own pathetic self-interests." The tiger shot back, as he grabbed his knife, hung it in the air and aimed it at Bellwether's chest. "Courtesy of Z."

" _STAB!"_

* * *

 **Next time: Chapter 41, Awaiting The Outcome**

 **I hate to do this to you all again, but I will be off of this story for at least a couple more weeks. This isn't because I have run low on chapters again cause I'm still caught up with how many I have in stock at the moment. But I've only been working on this story for a few months in a row now that I want to continue with a few of my other stories I've been writing before I can proceed with this one. Not only that, you're going to need to be ready for when the next chapter comes ;) see you soon!**


	42. Awaiting The Outcome

**Chapter 41: Awaiting The Outcome**

January 1st, 2018, four days after the attack at Rock Sinvarto

He had been waiting patiently for that one phone call he was expecting to receive any minute now. The first part of operation Y had already been completed better than we thought, and he was planning to continue with the same momentum. Why? Because it wasn't over yet. He still had more than enough loose ends to deal with if he wanted his business to stay alive and running.

Moments later, he finally heard the phone ringing on his desktop and slowly picked it up. "Yes?" Z asked calmly.

 _"_ _It's ready, things should start to happen by tomorrow morning once he gets there, and to assure you we were not seen by neither animals nor cameras."_ The mammal on the other end explained. _"So if you yourself has been planning for this moment in time where you're also dealing with your own business, then I suggest you tell that wolf worker of yours to suit up, because he needs to do his job at least close enough to the time the second part of operation Y happens."_

"I'll call him right now and tell him to get ready for the morning then." Z said. "While I'm still on the same line as you, I would like to thank you for the service you have done for myself. This is definitely not something I should be doing at all to be honest, and I wouldn't blame you if you told me that yourself. But these mammals have been at it for a while now with them getting closer to learning the truth, and they need to go before the heat on me becomes public."

 _"…_ _Just watch yourself."_ The mammal suggested. _"If you make a habit in doing this stuff, the whole city is going to fall apart sooner or later, and then who are you going to have to sell too by then?"_

 _"_ _Heh."_ Z said thinking about it. "I know that by now and I'm not going to, believe me. Still, I definitely hope it's just this once we have to do this. Pleasure doing business with you." He said, as he hung up the phone.

* * *

January 2nd, 2018, the next morning

"Okay, start over from the top." Nick said, as he and Judy were walking into the ZPD while discussing the actions of the Rock Sinvarto prison attack.

"There were at least seven of them in total according to some of the inmates who were willing to talk." Judy replied. "Police on the scene found some of the guards tranquilized with dart guns similar to the ones we would use. Some guards claim they saw certain animal guards who seemed suspicious since they don't recall any species of those animals working there."

"It would explain why all the doors were unlocked, making it an easy escape for the suspects behind this to get out." Nick said. "It seems like it wasn't just the fake inmates that were a part of it then."

"Probably." Judy agreed. "There were tire tracks leading to the back exit and only a guard would be given permission to put something like a bus back there in case of transportation requirements."

"They must have driven away in some kind of an inmate bus in order to blend in with the prison guards so they wouldn't be seen as suspicious when taking off."

"And they did in fact." Judy brought up. "But they found the bus torched and burned to the crisp by some old skateboard park near the prison."

"What about all the animals who were targeted, did any of them survive?"

"It doesn't seem like it." Judy replied. "There were four rams and Bellwether included who were killed by the unknown assailants. Woolter Gray, Jesse Pinkstrom, and Doug Mcalvron were the three rams we had a run-in with when we tried to deliver the evidence of night howler serum inside the train to the ZPD."

"Hold on, Doug Mcalvron?" Nick asked. "Wasn't his last name Ramses?"

"It was originally thought that, but it turns out he thought ahead of time and tried to come up with an alias of the name Ramses for himself in case the cops got the heat on him too soon." Judy explained. "The fourth one, Michael Shedput was the ram who threw us down into the deer exhibit at the natural history museum, trapping us down there until backup arrived."

"But that's only four rams, didn't Bogo say there were nine in total who assisted Bellwether with the night howlers incidents?"

"Well yes, but not all of them were in the same prison." Judy answered. "The other five played a more minor role in the case, so Bogo kept their identities sealed to the media and took them off to their own separate prisons way outside the city. But considering these four rams and Bellwether herself were the main animals responsible and already well known to the public, they were taken to a, so we thought, strong held prison which was Rock Sinvarto."

"Okay and what about the casualties in particular, has there been any new information about it?"

Judy shook her head. "When paramedics got to the scene after an inmate called one of the guards in to check out the bodies, they could tell just by the sights they were already gone. They say whoever committed it did it fast, like the throat slitting technique which cuts off the oxygen to your brain, or sudden blood loss from heavy wounds placed onto them. I heard Bellwether was the only one who was stabbed at least with one wound through the stomach, and the other straight into the heart. They say she should have died, needless to say mere seconds after the knife punctured her heart."

"This isn't right, no normal animals would all of a sudden break into a prison to take out someone who's had a pretty negative affect to the city." Nick said. "Do you think this could be Z's work?"

"Like I've said to you already Nick, I'm not sure." Judy replied. "Z might have told Biggy and some others he thinks he could trust about something called operation Y, but no matter how big it may sound there is no motivation to kill a corrupted former mayor."

"But if he really is behind this Judy, what do you think could have supplied him some motivation?"

Judy shrugged as she thought. "... It could have something to do with the media. Lionheart's always been going on about how this weapons case is not a problem and manageable when comparing it to the night howlers case. Something about how he said it might have triggered Z to make a move of his own so it wouldn't be like his business is being made a fool of."

"So you think he wanted to show Lionheart and the rest of Zootopia what they're business is really capable of?" Nick wondered. "Judy, that's not something Z would do just to make an act of proving himself as a threat, he's made that clear many times already towards us and others who have fallen victim to him."

"I know, and it's still not sitting right with me." Judy admitted. "Either it was someone else who all of a sudden decided to rage on Bellwether and her rams, or maybe Z's got more intentions of future business planning than we thought."

"Oh my _god,_ what the hell are we supposed to do now?" Nick asked. "He's going to keep pressuring us until we pop, this zebra!"

" _sshhhh, not so loud!"_ Judy whispered. "Remember, the ZPD isn't the best place to discuss any of this stuff, one good sentence from us is all it takes to arrest us Nick, just remember that."

"Well Judy, let me ask you something and I consider this to be personal." Nick said. "Why haven't we told Bogo about _any_ of this so far? What the hell have we been doing this entire time, have we been so blind from all of this that we forgot the simplest answer would be to tell the ZPD about all of this?"

"Nick stop it, you know we can't do that and we've been over this already."

"Oh laddity da Judy, your father might just be the one to die if we do, _so what?"_ Nick asked, as he began to get aggravated. " _Dozens_ of animals have died now ever since this all started and the body count is most likely going to keep increasing. You're afraid your father will die, yet you think it's okay for others to take his place for the time being?"

"Nick I never, _ever_ said those things and you're the one who's becoming the coward here by putting all those deaths on me."

"…. Do you want to take this outside then little bunny?" Nick asked with an angered expression still left on him.

* * *

Bogo continued to finish up any of the paper work he ended up missing from the other day before he would go back to investigating on the weapons case. There was that, and it was almost time to give out assignments in the bullpen. But just as he was about to sit up from his chair, he heard a knock on the door.

"Snarlbuff, is that you?" Bogo called out.

" _Yes it is chief, you wanted to see me again?"_ Snarlbuff asked on the other side of the door.

"Yes I did, come in." Bogo replied, as Snarlbuff opened the door and took a seat in front of Bogo. "Now in the public's view of things, from what I've been hearing is there's word going around where animals believe these weapon manufacturers were the cause of the Rock Sinvarto attack. Is this true?"

"Um…" Snarlbuff said, while thinking about it. "It's kind of got its ups and downs chief. It's not like anything we've been hearing on the news about reporters debating whether or not it was, but an unprovoked incident on a former assistant mayor and mayor sure has gotten some heads turning. Some animals believe it because they think the weapons group are the only ones up to date capable of that kind of power. Others wouldn't believe it because the weapons used in this incident were army knives, no guns were used."

"Yea well guns can cause noise and more evidence to find for cases like this, these animals knew that ahead of time." Bogo said. "They wouldn't have wanted the real guards to come in and witness a sight like that, not to mention the animal watching the security cameras had already been knocked out cold at that point. But it's strange isn't it, they get the chance to kill the guards but the only knock them out and kill certain inmates?"

"Seems like it's how their style works, whoever these animals were."

"Yes, but there's something that bothers me about Bellwether's body." Bogo said. "Medics at the scene say she should have died only a couple minutes after her death due the knife puncturing some major arteries and blood vessels. She could have even died in the span of less than a minute if she was really unlucky. Now if that's the case, then why did the culprits need to stab her again in the heart if she was clearly about to die?"

Snarlbuff shrugged. "Maybe this animal had a hard grudge on her because of what she did to many of the predators of this city."

"No, no animal who thinks they're doing a deed to the city would have done this, this was rather brutal." Bogo assumed. "Every other animal murdered had their throats slit, but Bellwether was the only one stabbed, don't you find that rather odd? I mean if it really was simply a job someone was given to do, then why didn't they simply do the same thing everyone else did if the rams murdered in this incident were as guilty as Bellwether was?"

"What are you implying here Bogo, you think whoever committed this did it because they were more than just a witness to the night howler's case?"

"Judging from the angle you look at Snarlbuff, yes I do suppose it was someone who was more involved than we believe to be in the night howlers case." Bogo replied.

"Chief, even if your theory is correct, you should know there were dozens of predators who had fallen victim to the night howler serum absorbed onto them." Snarlbuff pointed out.

Bogo smiled. "Not unless we can narrow it down to one animal who is a known associate of this animal." Bogo said, as he slid over the file to Snarlbuff.

When Snarlbuff picked up the file, he wasn't too surprised on who it belonged to. "Zamiel Stripes, we're still not over with this guy yet?"

"I've never been finished with any suspect until I am a hundred percent positive it's not them." Bogo stated. "Besides, it's hard to deny him not having any of the characteristics we believe the head of this criminal organization possesses. If we can find at least one animal who is a part, or even related to an animal who fell victim to the night howler serum, we may be able to find enough evidence soon on those two that we can finally make an arrest out of."

"You seriously mean it?" Snarlbuff asked shocked. "So after all these months of searching, if we do find someone close enough to this animal you're saying we can finally make an arrest and show this animal to the public, as well as the rest of the ZPD?"

Bogo nodded. "It has been a hard couple of years ever since this all started back in 2016. I've realized how obsessed it I have made myself with this case. Animals, especially officers I assume have been saying things about me and my stress to my mind put on this case being particularly unhealthy for myself, and I don't blame them."

"You shouldn't blame yourself chief, you were just trying to do your job as the chief of police you knew you always were." Snarlbuff said, trying to cheer him up. "Does your stress have anything to do with some of Lionheart's comments directed towards you?"

Bogo sighed. "I never like that lion Snarlbuff and I still don't, especially not after what he did as well to all those predators in the night howlers case. But because he's reinstated once more, he now wants to put all the pressure on myself because he wouldn't know how to run a city in case of emergencies like the animals out there possessing all the lethal weapons to continue bringing fear into the city."

Snarlbuff bit his lip at the thought. "You know what I say Bogo, when we're finished with this case, maybe it's time you had another chat with Lionheart about the rights and the wrongs. You could even have the entire city of Zootopia on your back as you could be known in history as the animal who brought down the largest criminal organization Zootopia has ever seen in all of its years."

Bogo smiled at the thought of it. "It is a good feeling, I can understand that much."

"Well, maybe it doesn't have to be a feeling anymore."

Bogo knew what Snarlbuff was telling him and how genuine it sounded. Something in his head even told him this could actually be the right thing to do if he wanted the city to be finally back on his side again after all this time. With that thought in mind, he looked at his clock and saw it was almost time to start giving out the usual assignments he had planned for all his officers.

"We should get going Officer Snarlbuff, we don't want to be late for bullpen assignment calls." Bogo said, as he put the files back in his drawer.

"Oh yea you're right, I almost forgot to look at the time." Snarlbuff said while looking at the time.

"Then let's get to it." Bogo said, as he sat up from his chair.

 **"** ** _BEEP BEEP."_**

But as he got up from his chair, he heard the sound of a beeping noise coming from inside the room. Both officers looked around the room for a moment to find the source of the sound, but there was nothing in sights they could see which would make a beeping sound.

"What was that?" Snarlbuff asked.

* * *

 _"_ _Excuse me?"_ Judy asked silently.

"Oh you heard me loud and clear fluff." Nick shot back.

" _Hah,_ I would just _love_ to see what happens when you try to take the first punch Wilde." Judy snapped back. "That is if you're still on your feet by then."

"Do you really think I'm scared of fighting with a cute little bunny like yourself?" Nick teased.

"No, but you really should be if you're planning to go that far with this."

"Oh is that so?" Nick asked, as out of nowhere he grabbed Judy's vest and pulled her towards his face. "Let me tell you something Judy, this past year and more has been nothing but a living hell to me. I've lost a friend, a mother, what have _you_ lost?"

"Nick, let go of me right now." Judy demanded, but with Nick not obeying. "This is not who you are, you're letting your fears get the better of you right now."

"Oh really?" Nick said. "Then what kind of fears might I have on my mind currently if you seems to know what's going on inside of it?"

Judy still held her ground no matter how uncomfortable the position she was in may have been "… Your afraid something else bad is going to happen again to someone close to you."

Nick flabbergasted himself in disbelief. "Is that what you think Judy?"

"It's what I know Nick." Judy insisted. "You and I have _both_ lost so many of our friends, you can't handle the pressure of losing another one… just like me." She said with her eyes becoming a little watery.

Nick paused for a moment as he let go of Judy before responding. "How… how long did it take you to figure it out?"

"Oh it never took me any time Nick, the moment we stepped in front of the face of Z, I knew exactly what all of us were thinking." Judy replied. "And ever since then, I know we still have that fear stuck inside us."

"And you think anyone can blame us for having those thoughts?" Nick asked. "Why do you think I've always been so eager to discuss with Bogo about the whole story?"

"What, you think we're not going to get another chance if we do?" Judy asked. "Besides Nick, how do we know by telling Bogo We won't be causing more deaths than we would if we did tell him? The answer is we don't and it's not a viable option at the moment still."

"I get it Judy, but that's not exactly the angle I was looking at for that question."

It only took a couple moments for Judy to rethink what Nick asked before understanding what he was trying to say. "Nick, that's not something which should be on your mind right now."

"You're right, but Z's not afraid to take the course of action he needs to if it means getting his business back onto the right track." Nick presumed. "Look at Bellwether, if he really was behind it then we, along with Zootopia would now begin to understand the power this zebra's got."

"What are you even saying?" Judy asked chuckling. "This is _Bogo_ were talking about here Nick and he isn't afraid to take risky moves for an animal like Z if it means his side is the winner."

"I don't know Judy…" Nick said thinking about it, as he turned himself the other way.

"If Bogo is as willing as everyone says he is, then we may actually have some faith in him that could be able to free us finally from all the torture we've been through. You even said so yourself."

Nick thought about it and nodded. "You know what carrots, if we're lucky enough you could just be right after all." He said, as Judy smiled back.

 ** _"_** ** _BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!"_**

It was out of nowhere. Most of the officers were able to get up from the ground after the large shake coming from the second floor. Sirens began going off on every part of the building as it had begun to sense the dark and clouded smoke inside the building. The flames began to increase at a rapid speed as officers started running everywhere inside the building unsure of what to do after the sudden explosion.

Ringing was all Judy could hear inside her ear as the close impact of the explosion affected her eardrums greatly. " _Uuuh, uhhh…."_ Judy murmured feeling her ears, as she tried to stand up and regain consciousness. Once she fully stood up and tried to keep her balance, the ringing sound was still in her ear as she saw multiple cops sprinting towards the stairwells and running towards what look to be where the source of the explosion came from.

As she stood up, everything was still a blur to her from the impact. What made it harder for her to see was the smoke that covered the entire floor. Suddenly, an orange figure began running towards her as she was still trying to find the exit from her sight. But before she could move anymore, the orange figure took a hold of her and turned her to face him.

It didn't take too long for Judy to realize who the figure actually was. _"Nick…?"_ Judy mumbled with the ringing sound still going on in her ear. _"What's going on, what was that boom sound…?"_

 _"_ _Judy, get a hold of your senses!"_ Nick shouted, as Judy was unable to hear her properly. _"JUDY!"_

 _"_ _SLAP!"_

All of a sudden, Judy's hearing was back to normal after having been snapped out of the impact mode she was in with a slap to the face by Nick. "Huh, WHAT HAPPENED?" Judy said looking around here and still seeing nothing but smoke, flames and other officers running up the stairs, as sirens were still coming from everywhere inside the ZPD.

"JUDY!" Nick shouted once more, as he held his arms onto her shoulders while trying to make sure she was stable again. "Oh thank god, listen Judy we need to get out of here now, it's too dangerous to stay inside!"

"Wha- what happened?" Judy asked. "WHERE THE HELL DID ALL OF THIS COME FROM?!"

"It came from the second floor but it doesn't matter, we have to get out of here now!"

But Judy wasn't in the mood to get out just yet, as she still wanted to know where the source of the explosion came from. She then shoved Nick aside and began running for the stairs as well as many other officers were.

"JUDY, COME BACK!" Nick shouted, as he began running as well to catch her.

Once she was upstairs, many of the officers had already been asked from other officers who arrived at the second floor first ordered the rest to clear out before any part of the building was to become completely destroyed. But Judy on the other paw maneuvered her way around the other officers by sneaking through their legs and continued running down the hallway to find out what exactly happened. She then came across the room where the smoke seemed to be coming from, but became a little frightened when she recognized the room as Bogo's office. She held her breath and took a look inside to see the aftermath, but what she saw was something she would never be able to forget for the rest of her life. The sight of Bogo and officer Snarlbuff's scattered in several spots inside the office.

Judy's whole mind as instantly filled with so much fear, she couldn't help but scream it all out loud as she fell to her knees. "NOOOOOOOO!" She scream tugging at her ears as tight as she could, as she fell to her knees in shock. "BOGO! BOGO! BOGOOO!"

Then out of nowhere, she felt someone's arms wrapping around her waist trying to force her to get away from the horrible sights to be seen. "JUDY, STOP IT!" Nick shouted, as he tried to take Judy away from the gruesome scene. "YOU SHOULDN'T BE SEEING THIS!"

"LET GO OF ME!" Judy shouted, as she was kicking and screaming to get Nick off of her. "LET GO OF ME!"

A few other officers came in to intervene, as they assisted Nick with taking the uncontrollable officer Hopps outside in order to calm herself at least enough to make sure she wouldn't be going back inside. Even after an hour had gone by, she still couldn't get a hold of her senses.

"Judy calm down, you just need to take a breath for at least a moment before we can talk." Nick said as calmly as he could to Judy, as the two were sitting at a nearby cruiser.

 _"_ _It's because of us this happened Nick…."_ Judy murmured. "IT'S BECAUSE OF US THIS HAPPENED!" She shouted in front of Nick, as she began bursting into tears with her face lying on Nick's chest.

"Judy, you shouldn't be thinking even _near_ anything like that." Nick said. "This…. This was not our fault. You know exactly the animal behind this and it was entirely his doing, not yours or mine. And I swear to you, I will make him pay for this without anyone else having to die for what he's done."

Just then, a thought instinctively occurred to Judy as she went over to the wheel seat of the cruiser they were sitting in. "Nick, get in…"

Nick didn't seem to understand the reasoning for her telling him that. "What are you talking about Judy?"

Judy then twisted the keys which were already placed in the vehicle and started the car. "I'm going to pay Z a little visit."

"What?!" Nick shouted in disbelief. "Are you out of your mind Judy, do you have any idea what he'll do to you if-!"

"I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" Judy shouted. "Whatever he thinks he's doing targeting the ZPD itself, he's got another thing coming to him… now are you coming or not?!"

Nick knew this wasn't the best course of action to take at the moment, but he didn't want Judy to get into too much trouble since he could tell what she was going to do if she and Z see each other eye to eye. There wasn't a point in trying to get her out either, he could tell just by the expression on Judy's face that she wasn't willing to go anywhere else until she gave Z more than just a piece of her mind.

Nick sighed. "Alright fine, but just don't do anything that will get us killed."

Judy laughed at just the thought of it. "I wouldn't hold your breath if I were you on that one. Besides, I know by now they wouldn't kill us even if I were to _suddenly_ teach Z a little lesson of my own."

* * *

"What happened?!" Mayor Lionheart shouted, as he was in his office after receiving word about a possible terrorist attack at the ZPD.

 _"_ _We're still sorting out the details from here mayor Lionheart."_ An officer on the other end replied. _"The fire department needs to clear out the smoke and debris before we can start working on what was the cause of-"_

 _"_ _SLAM!"_

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Lionheart shouted, as he hit his paw hard on the desk still angry about the news he was hearing.

There was a moment of silence on both ends before the officer responded. _"… Mayor Lionheart, we're doing all we can at the moment and until then, it's going to take some time before we can confirm the casualties."_

"WELL SOMEBODY BETTER GIVE ME SOME DAMN ANSWERS SOON OR I'M GOING TO FLIP OUT!" Lionheart hollered, as he slammed the phone back down onto the table. Not too soon after did the phone start ringing again. "WHAT, ANYTHING YOU WANT TO TALK TO ME ABOUT CAN WAIT." He said loudly when he picked up the phone.

 _"_ _Forgive me mayor Lionheart, but this unfortunately can't wait."_ The animal on the other end replied.

Lionheart exhaled deeply in aggravation. "What is it you want, I've been getting phone call off the hook now after what happened today!"

 _"_ _I'll come up right now to discuss it before any of the reporters overhear it."_

 _"_ _Reporters?"_ Lionheart thought. _"When could the reporters have gotten here?"_

Moments later he heard a knock on the door as it slid open. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything sir." The animal said.

"Well you seem to be Bethany!" Lionheart shouted, as his assistant Bethany came walking in through the door. "Now you better have a good reason for coming at this hour or so help me, I will give you the _boot_ right now if it isn't."

"Sir, the press is outside the lobby demanding answers for the explosion at the ZPD." Bethany informed. "I've stalled them for a few minutes, but they're going to be wanting answers from you _now._ "

"What, you're saying they've already found out about the incident?!" Lionheart shrieked. "The police said it's only been an hour since it happened!"

"Sir, every single animal in Savannah Central heard the explosion go off so _of course_ word would have gotten around fast enough for the whole city to know about it by now." Bethany explained. "So what should I tell them?"

"Uhm…" Lionheart said, as he thought about it. "Okay, tell them something they can be satisfied with a case such as this like the usual stuff. You could say it was an unexplained attack, the situation has gotten stabled and is still finding out more, etcetera. If none of what you say turns out to be true later, then say it's what we could only understand from first observations."

"Do you really think the press is going to buy that story though?" Bethany asked. "It's what the ZPD have been doing ever since the weapons case all started."

"Look I don't care what you, or anyone around this god forsaken building has to say to the press, as long as it gets them off our tails and won't be a problem for us later then right now I could care less about what any of you say to them."

"But sir, the press want you to come down and talk to them in-mammal." Bethany brought up. "The main reason is because there's roomers going around saying the chief of police was killed when the explosion took place. I don't think any other animal but yourself can be able to talk to reporters without causing more panic than there already is."

 _"_ _Chief Bogo?"_ Lionheart said, surprised as he thought about it. _"How could… but that's… that's impossible, how could somebody have successfully exploded the chief of police without being noticed?!"_

"Sir?"

Lionheart then looked back up at Bethany. "That's…. that's a claim which no one can confirm unless they were at the scene itself."

"Well the sources of the rumors say it's what they heard and saw from the scene itself."

"Well what do you want me to say then?!"

"I'm just stating the facts sir."

"Yes, well the facts are what is causing problems for us now!" Lionheart shouted in aggravation. "I mean if the facts are already known to the city, then what do they think they can get out of me that makes them assume I know something they don't?"

"I don't think they can actually get any new information out of you, and it's possible they're even aware of that fact." Bethany replied. "But nevertheless, the issue for the press as of now is a good story to put online or in tomorrow's paper. They must be here now to get a reaction out of you for any of the questions they'll be wanting to throw at you."

"Yea, it makes me wish I could throw something right back at those fools." Lionheart said. "Hmm, but they will most likely be planning to ask me about my opinion on all of this. I don't know if I should give the usual 'we are here to assist you' crap, there's been enough animals _still_ on my case lately about the night howler's incident and they don't seem like they want to stop."

"Maybe that's what they'll be asking you about to ruffle your feathers." Bethany predicted. "They'll be asking you how your problem solving methods on criminals such as the ones behind the bomb attack will reflect on yourself based on your past methods in the night howler's case."

Lionheart thought about it and had the same worrisome feeling inside of him. "…. Well the last time we had that emergency, we had _witnesses,_ who also turned out to be savages and would have caused severe harm towards the city if let loose."

Bethany began to have a bad feeling he could ruin his reputation as a mayor today if he didn't answer anything the way the public would want to hear from him. "Mayor Lionheart, are you sure I shouldn't just answer with the facts we have already been given to the press as of now?"

"No, I wouldn't want you to do such a thing, even if it means risking my reputation at a mayor."

Bethany was surprised. "Why would you want to risk something as major as how all of Zootopia would see you as the mayor they chose to run this city?"

Lionheart sighed as he slowly walked over to his window, looking at the enormous city and horizon. "This city is moving into a very, very dark age Bethany, and I can't have anyone working for me making risks bad enough to cause something else horrible to happen." He said. "There's a pattern I've been seeing so far. First Bellwether, and now less than a week later today Chief Bogo? We obviously can't see the light at what we're dealing with here anymore. These criminals are starting to act like they own the entire god damn city now!"

"So what is it then, you think the criminals will be coming after me rather than yourself if I say something they don't want to hear?" Bethany asked. "Sir, my job is not one where I'm supposed to worry about getting involved in death scenarios."

"And I understand your concerns for this Bethany, not to worry." Lionheart assured. "I knew you would show your own opinions on the situation, which is why I need to do this. Who knows, maybe it's not as bad as I think it will be."

"But sir you need to understand that your life as well now will be at risk if you do-"

 _"_ _CRACK!"_

Just then, they heard the sounds of glass breaking from the window in front of Lionheart. Bethany moved over a little to see the crack of the glass coming from right in front of Lionheart.

"Uh, sir was that _you_ who broke the glass?" Bethany asked. _"But he couldn't have, I didn't see enough movement from his body to throw a punch at the window."_ She thought. _"Besides, he was starting to calm down from the heavy frustration he had on him, why would he want to do something crazy enough like that?"_

 _"_ _B-B-Bethany…."_ Lionheart murmured.

"L-Lionheart, are you alright?" Bethany asked, as she began to move closer. She could tell right away something was wrong, as she saw his entire body shaking so hard it looked like he was about to faint.

But when Lionheart slowly turned around to face her, she gasped with a stunned expression on her face as she tripped over backwards and landed right on her tail. Large amounts of blood had been flowing down from his chest as he appeared to have suffered a fatal shot straight through his heart. For a few moments without another word to say from either of the two animals, Lionheart slowly feel to his knees, and eventually fell flat on his face to the ground.

Animals soon came running into the office after hearing the commotion happening. "What's going on?" An animal asked, as he opened the door. "We heard the sound of glass breaking and we thought we'd-"

The animals paused themselves, as the first thing they locked their eyes on was the mayor of Zootopia Leodore Lionheart on the ground in a puddle of blood with not a single movement.

 _"_ _What is this?"_ An animal asked in shock. _"What the_ HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"

Bethany continued to pant loudly, until it came to the point where she couldn't hold it in any longer. "AAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!"

* * *

The sound of the phone ringing in the background was the one and only sound he wanted to hear at the moment. There were already a few other mammals in the room aware well enough about operation Y, who had also been waiting for the certain phone call to come once it was over. Z then took a deep breath, picked up the phone and answered it.

"Yes?" Z asked calmly.

 _"_ _It's finished."_ The animal on the other end said.

"What was the outcome overall?"

 _"_ _The bomb was set off perfectly, and exactly at the time you were expecting it to go off in the ZPD."_ The animal explained. _"We also received word your animals made it out of the building on time before police started coming towards the mayor's office."_

"And would you say this operation was a success?"

 _"_ _Un-doubtfully."_ The animal replied. _"There was no slip-ups whatsoever at any place or any time. I'd say you got nothing to worry about if you lay low for a little while longer."_

Z nodded to himself as he hung up the phone. He then laid back on his chair, closed his eyes and exhaled deeply in relief. "You guys can leave now if you want, the secret is already out and about throughout the warehouse." He assured.

"Yes sir." A worker said, as the rest of the animals in the room began walking out the door.

After a few more moments of silence to himself and staring at the roof, Z began to show a little smile. _"I did it, I've gotten rid of everything in my way…"_ Z thought. _"Finally after all this time of waiting for the right opportunity and holding it in from the public, this business can now get back onto the path it's always meant to have gone on…. The path of the indestructible."_

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 42, Money's Money**


	43. Money's Money

**Chapter 42: Money's Money**

"Judy, are you sure this is a good idea?" Nick asked, as she and Nick were about to confront Z about recent and unknown events tragically striking the city's core. "You do realize if you're planning to barge on in there, we're most likely going to get shot right?"

"Nick like I just told you, _I don't care anymore."_ Judy replied. "If they don't like me barging in or even stepping into somewhere without permission, they can try to shoot me if they want. But I know exactly it was Z who ordered the assassination on Bogo… he's not going to get off that easy when I meet with him face to face."

Nick thought Judy was still doing what she was doing by instinct after the horrible scene she witnessed inside Bogo's office but it's also when he thought. _"Who could blame her? No, who could blame either of us for doing this? We both want the same thing of what's coming for Z, so what's there to say he doesn't deserve this for all he's put us through so far?"_

"The warehouse is just up this street, are you with me or should I confront him my own way?" Judy asked.

The problem was Nick was having second thoughts on both sides. "… You know what carrots, do what you need to do, I won't stop you from approaching him however way you want. But if it gets a little too rough in there for your standards, then I'll intervene.

Judy sighed. "I thought you'd say something like that."

A few moments later, they approached the warehouse and to no surprise, there were more than a few vans parked out front with a tiger waiting by the trapdoor seeming to guard it out front. The police cruiser immediately caught the tiger's attention as he assumed they were here to ambush everyone down in the basement equipment rooms. Instinctively, he pulled out his gun out aiming it at the cruiser. But just as he was about to fire, when he saw the two animals coming out of the cruiser he lowered his gun.

However, he still held onto it since he still wasn't sure about the reason they were here. "State your business here animals." The tiger said.

"We're not looking for any trouble sir, even though we _did_ take a police cruiser over here." Nick said, looking back over to the cruiser they brought.

"Yes we are." Judy disagreed.

" _Whack!"_

Nick then elbowed Judy lightly in the arm as he didn't want the tiger to get the wrong impression from both of them. "But I think both of us are fully aware of who's behind what happened in the events that took place today."

"Oh really?" The tiger asked. "What makes you think it was us?"

"The fact that you're the only animals who know other animals capable of sticking a bloody bomb inside the chief of police's office and getting away with it." Judy said butting in. "Which is why we're asking you to move from the trapdoor so we can _discuss_ it with him."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that lil' bun." The tiger answered, knowing there's no point in denying about it anymore. "Z's already keeping off work for the remainder of the day in case the ZPD may have found something by accident, which could end up leading it back to him. If it comes down to it, then he'll be spending the rest of his occupied day on calculating the best option and outcome for himself."

"And you think we care?" Judy asked.

"You should." The tiger replied, showing the gun he was holding in his right paw. "Now if I were you two right now, I'd get your tails out of here if you know what's good for you."

Judy and Nick looked at each other with questioned expressions on whether or not they should continue to pursue this conversation with the tiger guard. But without saying a word, Judy turned her head back towards the tiger and took a step forward.

"Screw it." Judy mumbled.

 _"_ _SMACK, KICK!"_

Before the tiger could realize it happened, Judy smacked the gun out of the tiger's paws and kicked him straight in the crotch. That brought the tiger straight to his knees, as meanwhile Judy took a few steps back from behind him, ran at full speed jumping and with both feet, and drop-kicked him right in the back sending him rolling a few metres away from her and Nick.

 _"_ _Wow_ , I guess that's one way to do it." Nick said surprised. "I should consider myself lucky I didn't pick a fight with you earlier."

Judy rolled her eyes knowing that now wasn't the best time to bring that subject up, as she went over to the tiger's gun she disarmed. She grabbed it from the ground and stored it in her back pocket in order to make sure there wouldn't be any other problems with him. She made one last quick check to make sure the tiger was still on the ground, and luckily he was.

"Now's not the time for laughs Nick." Judy said. "Come on, let's get to the trapdoor."

"But Judy, wouldn't you think these sort of animals will fire on sight when we come inside, when to their knowledge of knowing there was already a guard out here keeping us from entering?"

Judy laughed. "Nick, they're not going to shoot at us. In fact, they all know well enough by now they can't kill us. We're too valuable to them if they want us to continue making weapon trades for them."

Nick thought about it after remembering Z bringing up something about the fact that no other buyers out there would buy from Z, unless the mysterious five were selling to them seeing as how they seemed to have been known as the professionals for that kind of work. It even made Nick realize how many trades it must have taken to be even remotely considered one of the best.

"… Even so, they'll still try to block our way once we get inside."

"Well then I guess we'll just have to make ourselves an opening, won't we?"

* * *

"So this is how you decided to take your course of action in order to get off the hook, huh?" Johnny, one of Z's long-time workers asked as he was leaning against the wall inside Z's office.

"Johnny, we've had the power to take out whoever we wanted for a long time now and you know it, but there are times when animals like myself know who they should and shouldn't kill." Z explained. "I've made too many mistakes in the past for having not taken out certain animals sooner… one of them caused the death of my former wife."

Johnny sighed. "Look, Zamiel-"

"STOP." Z interrupted. "I told you over and over numerous times, never to call me by my real name… That name was a name which was _taken_ away from me long ago, and only exists in the shadows of the publics eyes now."

Johnny closed his eyes and shook his head, knowing it wasn't worth fighting about. "No animal can ever know the secrets to life, sometimes life just simply has its own way with things. This right here is the same ordeal. Maybe you made the right option in taking out the animals with the most power to this city, but maybe you didn't because they may have not been the targets you were looking for all along."

"What are you trying to imply?"

"What I'm saying is, there's always been miscalculations to every animal who had tried to think they were better than the others." Johnny replied. "But just because they rarely happen, doesn't mean they won't _ever_ happen. In fact if you ask me, you're inevitable to make another one sooner or later as nobody in this world is ever perfect."

"My job towards the threats of this business is not about calculative risks or gambles." Z disagreed. "It's all about the knowledge Johnny. Knowledge is what always beats calculations as something that did in fact happen, it's a hundred percent accurate every time. If I can use the same form of knowledge against those animals, it shouldn't be a problem in staying at least one step ahead of them."

"But that's not how I saw you do it at all Z." Johnny said. "I saw all the crimes you masterminded recently and let me tell you, every single one of those cases are calculated risks. However, you ordered it _anyways_ because you assumed to have had the higher odds in your favor of the situation turning out the way you wanted it to."

"Oh, that's what you think?" Z said, smiling a little.

"You bet." Johnny answered, as he took his back off the wall and began to walk right in front of Z's desk. "Take Dawn Bellwether's case for an example. You calculate every angle and risk possible to the problem, so you know who to call up for the job or who to bribe to get past security, or even the methods of knocking out the main guards of the case like the one who monitors all the security cameras. Now for Bogo's case, judging from the fact that no other animal could understand who or even how the bomb was set up _and_ set off, from my past experience I'm pretty sure I know how you did it."

Z laughed. "I took no part in the planning for the mission to take place Johnny, I just call up some who can and pay them for it. But even if that's true, if you and I really have had enough experience together in this business for so long, then I would like to hear how you think they did it and see I it matches up with my assumptions."

Johnny smiled. "Alright fine, I'll play your little game." He said, as he took a seat. "Now I'm guessing the answer had to have been… _pressure sensors_. They must have added a sensor inside the cushion of his chair, a once he stood up, the pressure was released causing the sensor to begin the circuit of flowing towards the direction of the trigger with the explosives, imminently activating them and _boom_ , there she blows. Now as for the method of setting up the devices on the chair inside the ZPD without getting noticed, that had to have been a tricky one."

"Aw what's wrong, scared of a little problem solving?" Z teased.

"In your dreams." Johnny replied. "But I'm trying to think about what _I_ would do if given a task like this. Hmm… I would need animals that were short, like animals that can cut through corners of cameras and other animals walking by who wouldn't be able to notice. Or maybe it didn't even need to have happened like that, they would have had to make sure they weren't seen with the equipment they brought as well."

Z leaned back on his chair. "Well say you were a mouse inside of a large building trying to escape it before the building is completely set on fire. Where would the first place occur to you if you wanted to make a faster route if the elevators and staircase were already busted?"

Johnny thought about it and then snapped his fingers at the realization. "The ventilation system!" He shouted. "The animals you hired must have gotten some blue prints to the structure of the ZPD, including the ventilation shafts and planned a route most likely at night time Bogo had already left the building, then used that route to make their way to his office with the supplies needed to plant the bomb. But they would've most likely brought some other materials to make it seem like nothing was ever tampered with on the chair once he sat on it."

Z raised his arms up. "Looks like we have a winner." He said.

"But you see what I mean Z, all of what they had to do in order to set up the bomb was _still_ a calculated risk." Johnny claimed. "It was a risk to break into the ventilation system without anyone seeing them, it was a risk to get the blueprints to the station without having the operation get leaked, and it was a risk to plant the bombs fast enough into the chair without having another ZPD officer wander in all of a sudden to spot them."

Z shrugged. "Whatever you say then Johnny. But if you really think that, well then maybe I really _have_ had some good old luck hanging around on my side."

Suddenly, they began to hear commotion coming from downstairs. "The hell is all that about?" Johnny wondered, as he walked towards the door and opened it a tiny bit to see what was going on. Once he saw the cause of the commotion, he slowly closed the door and turned back towards Z. "We have visitors."

"Visitors?"

"And it seems like they're coming right this way." Johnny continued. "You might want to brace yourself for these two."

Z was a little confused at who it may be, especially since he already had a guard placed out front just in case. "I thought Thomas was supposed to make sure nobody got in here."

"So did I." Johnny agreed, as he began to here thumping sounds coming their way. "Here we go…" He said, while walking over to Z's desk.

 _"_ _KICK!"_

Just then, the door was kicked wide open as the two animals immediately stared straight at Z.

" _You…."_ Judy grumbled. "You did it all didn't you?"

Z cocked an eyebrow. "I'm sorry but you're going to have to be a little more specific than that."

"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME Z!" Judy shouted. "I know _exactly_ what you have done. You murdering…. No good ROTTEN PIECE OF-"

" _Click."_

Before Judy could get an inch closer, Johnny took his gun out keeping her from the same position. However, after a few seconds Z raised his arm slightly up to signal Johnny that he could put it away. Johnny then slowly lowered the gun from aiming it at Judy's head.

"Hmm, I could've sworn I sent Thomas to go on lookout to make sure no one was creeping around in the process of all this." Z stated. "But apparently you two somehow got in anyway? I don't know about you two, but there's definitely something wrong with that picture."

"I beat him up so I could get in, what's your point?" Judy asked, as Johnny's eyes widened from hearing that."

"No way, that's impossible." Johnny said. "Thomas is a tiger, which means he's a least five times your size and yet you still are somehow able to take him down?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Judy asked. "I may look like just another stupid bunny to you animals, but you obviously have no idea what you're dealing with if you ever tried to pick a fight with me. And if you want proof, I'm sure that Thomas worker of yours is still on the ground balling out about his privates or dignity."

Z then looked towards Johnny once more. "She's not wrong Johnny." Z said. "I saw her profile for the academy she went to in order to become a police officer, and there's definitely no joke about it with her being the highest scored in learning the proper martial arts against an attacker. She's definitely able to use her size to her advantage."

"But we're not here for violence gentlemammals, not unless you decide to continuously throw crappy lies at us." Nick explained. "I'm just going to come out and say it, I am _just_ as pissed as Judy is about all of this as this is going _way, way, way_ over the boundaries of what you should and shouldn't be doing."

"Oh is that so?" Z asked. "You know, I thought I'd never need to see your faces again and you could've simply done the work I asked you all to do. But if you had kept a better eye on your friends instead of all of them shooting up other animals, maybe your chief wouldn't have gotten too suspicious of my life and we wouldn't have had to result to _any_ of this from the massacre."

"I DON'T CARE FOR YOUR REASONING, WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" Judy shouted. "It's not like you're god Z, _you_ don't choose who gets to live or die in this world!"

"Perhaps, but it's almost as if I _have_ the power to do so." Z said smiling. "Not only that, in business money's money and you sometimes have to make tough decisions of you want to make a good paycheck at the end of the day. Besides, it happens when certain animals start becoming a little too suspicious of my normal activities, so I just kill them and bury them some place no one can find. But of all my years of business, I've never done something like this before considering taking out high ranked officials is no easy task, especially since it's impossible to get them in their sleep without some guard nearby watching."

"So you think you can pull this all off and just get away with it?" Nick asked. "Z, there's _always_ going to be animals working to stop you, you can't undo or take down what's never going away!"

"I know, but I'd say I bought myself a good chunk of time before someone else comes along." Z said. "Bogo however, crossed the line when I found out he was considering me as a suspect."

 _"_ _What the…"_ Nick thought. _"When in the world did Bogo have his suspicions on Z? No, if it really is true then why didn't he ever tell anyone about it?"_

"As soon as I was questioned under suspicion of heading a criminal organization, I realized it was the perfect wake up call time for him and a few other's having to be put down." Z explained. " _I_ am the one who corners animals, I'm not the one who _gets_ cornered by them."

"You seem to have too much confidence up your sleeve." Judy said. "You killed Dawn Bellwether…. YOU KILLED CHIEF BOGO!"

Z laid one of his hoofs on his head as he shook it, knowing that he wasn't the kind of animal to repeat what he just said to someone if he wanted to make a point.

 _"_ _KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."_

"Who is it?" Z called out.

 _"_ _It's us."_ The animal on the other side of the door said.

 _"_ _Oh, they came back faster than I expected them to."_ Z thought. "You can come in, conveniently enough his friends also happen to be here too." He said.

As the door opened, a few animals walked into the room. One of them, to Nick and Judy's surprise was an animal hey had already recognized.

"Danny?" Nick asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Never mind me, what the hell are you two doing here?" Danny asked. "Z I thought you said they wouldn't find out about this, did you break our agreement?"

"Agreement, what agreement?" Judy butted in. "Wait hang on a second, you made an agreement with _him_ and you didn't even tell us what it was-"

"Just for the record Miss Hopps, it wasn't my intentions to assume you would come over here to confront me about this."

Nick still couldn't handle the absurdity that was coming out of that zebra's mouth. "We knew it was you ever since the explosion went off right in front of us!" Nick shouted. "And you actually didn't think we'd come and ask you about it?"

"Forget asking you, more like taking a well-deserved enough punch to break your god damn neck!" Judy snapped. "I'm not going to let you get away with this Z."

Z sat back up from his chair, as what Judy just said had somewhat struck him. "Is that so?" He asked.

"Yes, and from me there's no denying it." Judy assured. "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, heck, maybe not even for another year. But even if it means killing _you,_ or myself for it, then so be it. I'm not going to stop either way until I've seen you pay for everything you've done. And I mean _everything."_

Z slowly stood up from his chair and leaned up right in front of Judy. "You've got a lot of nerve saying that to my face little bunny." He said beginning to chuckle. "You know believe it or not, I kind of like the confidence you have in you. No wonder you three are so popular on the streets for my weapon dealing jobs with that sort of fearlessness you all got inside of you. But no matter what you say or how you say it, if it's something I consider a threat to myself, well then I don't take it too kindly."

"Yea, when wouldn't you?" Nick asked.

"Too shay." Z replied. "Oh, and you were asking about the agreement I made with Mr. Wolford, right?" He said, turning his head in Judy's direction.

"What does that have to do with not taking too kindly to threats?" Judy asked.

"Payback can come in many shapes and forms Miss Hopps, this one is a little something that is best left not known about." Z explained.

"Z DON'T." Danny said loudly, as he walked towards his desk.

"I said I wouldn't bother your family, I didn't say anything about keeping your task a little secret to your friends." Z stated.

"What little secret?" Nick asked.

"Oh, I thought you would've figured it out by now, as it only happened a mere half hour ago at least." Z said. "Well there's no short way to put it, so I'm just going to say it. Danny Wolford has just assassinated the mayor of Zootopia."

Both Judy and Nick's eyes suddenly widened with horrified expressions on their face, as their minds went completely blank from the sounds of those words, almost as if it had just exploded into millions of pieces.

 _"_ _Wha-what?"_ Nick whispered.

 _"_ _Mayor Lionheart is dead as well?"_ Judy thought. _"What…. What is this?"_

"Didn't see that one coming now did you?" Z said, laying his chin on his left hoof. "You two probably mustn't have heard about it yet considering the explosion had just occurred almost around the same time. I'm guessing you two had to have missed the announcement right when you left."

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!" Judy hollered. "YOU ORDERED ANOTHER ASSASSINATION ON MAYOR LIONHEART?!"

"…." Z stayed silent, as he supposedly figured he didn't have much of an excuse to make up anymore.

"AND YOU AGREED TO DO IT?!" Nick shouted, as he pointed to Danny.

"I DIDN'T AGREE TO DO ANYTHING!" Danny shouted back.

"Well actually, you kind of did Danny." Z disagreed.

"YOU ZIP IT Z, I was never given a choice on anything you asked me to do!" Danny continued to shout. "It was either I did it, or he would kill me apparently because of some stupid incident that lead to the cause of two of his crew members to die, along with my own mother!"

"Oh come on, surely you can think of a better excuse than that!" Nick said in disbelief. "I think I understand it though, you chose Danny to do it because of his skill didn't you Z?!"

Z cocked and eyebrow. " _Oh_ , you think I tricked him into killing someone for me?" He asked.

"No, but it sure as hell couldn't have been because of that incident back in the sewers, even to _you_ it's not enough motivation." Nick replied. "You wanted him because he had the highest range skill of shooting out of everyone from your crew didn't you? I assume you remember his secret confession he told you that night on Zootopia day."

Z gave a smile, as he realized he had underestimated Nick's skills of deduction amongst the reasoning of how one thing would lead to another. "Ah, so Mr. Wolford _did_ tell you the secret I figured out about him."

"Yes he did." Nick said. "So you must have used that incident on him as an excuse to make him do it, with what I assume was a rifle at a good enough range to hit him from the window."

 _"That's right, there was a clear window of the entire city the last time I was inside that room..."_ Judy thought.

"That's not completely true…." Danny said silently.

"Then what is it you discussed with him if it wasn't that Danny?!" Nick shouted.

"He told me if I did this job, then he would assure my family would be left out of what we've been in from the start." Danny answered. "What else was I supposed to do Nick… my mother had already died and I couldn't live with myself either way if the rest of my family was murdered because of _me!"_

"I LOST MY MOTHER TOO DANNY!" Nick shot back. "You think you're so special that you can shoot the head animal of an entire city just for your own personal needs? THAT TO ME IS NOTHING BUT CRAP, CRAP AND MORE CRAP!"

"HE WAS GOING TO KILL ME EITHER WA-"

"OH SO THAT'S HOW YOU THINK NOW, HUH?!" Nick interrupted Danny. "You think its okay to kill other innocents _just_ to save your own tail?!"

"IT'S OVER NICK!" Danny screamed. "There's nothing I can do about it now! I… I just _can't_ take the chance of losing anyone else close to me because of my own actions!"

"Oh so what, you're just going to ignore the fact you murdered one of the highest ranked officials of this city?" Nick asked, leaving Danny speechless. "What happened today is not a simple matter that can be resolved Danny, it's _permanent!"_

"You think I don't know that?" Danny asked pointing to himself. "If you had just been paying more attention to me, rather than seeing me as just the third animal of the mysterious five who simply stands there and does nothing, maybe you would've seen just how much of an impact this has all had on me up until now!"

"Danny…." Judy mumbled, as she walked right in front of him looking up. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret which you might have not understood up to this point."

"Oh yea, what other secrets have you two been keeping from me now?"

"Nothing, we-"

"CAN IT NICK!" Judy shouted while pointing at Nick, as she turned her attention back towards Danny. "Bend down for a second, will you?"

"Um, why?" Danny asked with a confused expression on him.

"It's not a secret if everyone in here can hear it, now is it?" Judy replied, as Danny shrugged and bent down for her. She then went close up to his ear and whispered, _"It's not just you."_

 _"_ _KICK!"_

Just then, Judy instantly kicked Danny straight in the face sending his loss of balance with his back slammed to the door. Z meanwhile was actually enjoying himself as he presumed Judy and Nick would come, but not in a way where they end up turning against each other like this.

"Oh that's how you're going to take it?" Danny asked, now furious as he stood back up while wiping off the blood from his nose."

"Bring it, I've been waiting for a _very_ long time to release what I've kept inside after all this time." Judy shot back.

"Fine, you asked for it."

"Judy, stop it." Nick said trying to intervene, but with Judy still shoving him off.

Both animals then charged at each other from opposite directions. But just as Danny was about to strike a deep blow onto Judy's head, Judy slid under between Danny's legs, while jumping and hooking herself onto Danny's neck from behind trying to get him to lose balance. Danny then tried to pull her off with his paws, but seemed to have underestimated Judy's strength. Danny continued crashing into walls and continuing to pull at her as hard as he could but with no use.

Finally, Judy got off of him, but to Danny's surprise was countered on himself as Judy had purposely hopped off him, swung and made a one-eighty turn around the pole for the clothes line Z had in his office and aimed her feet straight back towards Danny's face. This time however, Danny's impact on the door he collapsed on once again was so powerful, it was forced open as he fell right on his tail.

"How do you like that Mr. _Big Bad Wolf?"_ Judy said, taunting him.

Infuriated with Judy's comment, Danny got right back on his feet and began charging at her like a speeding stampede. He then jumped to grab her from the ground, but Judy was fast enough to hop over him by then. However, Judy miscalculated how fast he would recover as he immediately turned back around and began chasing for her once more. This time Judy ran as she could tell there was no position good enough to get the angle on him at that moment.

As they were both running back out the door, Judy planned to hop over the stair rails and land downstairs perfectly. That is until while she was in the process of doing so when Danny was able to hook onto her leg just in time, but unfortunately sending both of them to fall over the rail due to the speed they were sprinting at.

It took a couple moments for both of them to recover from the hard fall, but as Danny turned back around thinking Judy was still on the ground, he got a hard punch to the face from the side. Danny immediately got back up as both he and Judy were in a fighting position, as many of Z's crew who were in the room decided to sit back and let it happen.

Danny made the first move by swinging a kick towards Judy, only to have it blocked by her arms as she took the second move by shifting her feet with a downward slide towards his legs, causing him to lose balance and fall to the ground. But as Judy was about go for a third kick to the face to end it all, Danny blocked her with his large and fast-moving fist throwing her a couple metres away from him.

As both Danny and Judy got back up, they could tell from each other's eyes that they haven't had enough just yet. As both of them were about to charge for each other once more to see which of them stayed standing in the end, Nick all of a sudden cam bursting in the middle of the two right when they were about to sprint.

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH YOU TWO!" Nick shouted.

"NICK MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, I'M TAKING HIM DOWN." Judy said loudly.

"Judy, fighting is not going to get us anywhere than we already are right now." Nick stated. "And Danny, get your tail out of here because I don't want to see your face anywhere near me for the rest of the week, or heck even longer would be fine by me!"

"Are you kidding me Nick, I'm not going anyw-"

"NOW DANNY!" Nick shouted, as he pulled out his tranquilizer dart gun. "I'm not going to ask you again."

As much as Danny wanted to take back a few of the kicks Judy had given him, he still ended up forcing himself to grab his bag and storm out the exit.

"What the hell was that Nick?!" Judy hollered. "Do you have any idea what he's now started from killing Lionheart?!"

"Well it's not like he was doing it because he wanted to." Z said, as he walked down the stairs. "I gave him the orders, and I told him his family would end up paying the price if he didn't do what I wanted."

"So you're saying of all the other times you could've told him that, you just _now_ decide to threaten him with threats of loved ones dying?"

"It could have been a lot of times in fact Mr. Wilde." Z answered. "Could have been the prison sewers incident with Danny's mother, could have even been the incident with the fake bodies as a way of showing retribution on what you should've done in the first place, or maybe it's just what I told you five from the very beginning. If you don't help us, then the animals close to you might just end up paying the price instead."

"I'm not going to let you get away with this…." Judy said, clenching her fists together. "No, in fact I'm not letting _anyone_ of you get away with this. I may have seen many unforgiving things in my time spent with you all, but you have now just crossed the frickin line."

Z rolled his eyes as he got tire of listening to Judy speak her nonsense. "Shane, Andrew, escort these two out of here and ensure the trapdoor is locked tight on your way back in."

Z's crew members then grabbed Nick and Judy by the arms and started walking them back towards the exit. Both Nick and Judy knew it was pointless to fight back against these two as they were easily outnumbered with the rest of the animals who were down there. Finally, they approached the door and were then shoved out by the two crew members.

But Judy still wasn't finished talking to Z's crew. "This doesn't end here, you two hear me?" She asked Shane and Andrew.

Both animals chuckled as Shane began closing the trapdoor. "Sure little bunny, sure."

"I WILL MAKE SURE ALL OF YOU HAVE PAID FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Judy shouted once more. "THIS DOESN'T END HERE!"

" _SLAM!"_ Went the trapdoor.

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 43, Bringing In A New Face**


	44. Bringing In A New Face

**Chapter 43: Bringing In A New Face**

January 9th, 2018, 1 week later

"Did they ever say when this guy would be coming in to take over the case?" Judy asked.

"I think they said sometime around the end of January or more." Nick replied.

"What do they call him?"

"Nobody knows this agent's real name, except for his alias." Nick replied. "I think he works for the 'FBAI' but it's not confirmed."

"Alias, why would this guy need an alias?"

"Well, judging from the fact that Z's group was able to pull off one of the largest separate assassinations on the same day this world has ever seen, I'm pretty sure whoever this agent is, he's taking his own measure of precautions when he arrives." Nick assumed. "But as of now, his alias name is Corey Hopkins."

"Sounds like a rabbits' name."

"Oh why, because his last name starts with the word Hop?"

"Well I know a rabbit's name when I hear one." Judy replied. "In fact I could probably name you at least ten thousand of them, and that's just coming from the top of my head."

"How in the world can you remember so many names at once?"

"Well, when you live on a farm with almost three-hundred siblings, you kinds of get used to it overtime." Judy stated. "So about this Hopkins guy…. What makes the ZPD so confident he's the right guy for this job from whatever agency he came from?"

"They say he may be small, but he sure does have the experience in this sort of stuff." Nick said. "He's always been the key element in solving many of the major cases he's come upon all across the country, as well as a few others around the world. I also hear when his agency needed to send someone to do the case in order to take Bogo's place as head of the weapons investigation, he was the first and only animal to volunteer for the job."

"Confidence sounds like something the ZPD could use at the moment, wouldn't you think?"

"Yea no kidding." Nick agreed. "But hey maybe bringing in a new face around here, especially a professional one, is just what the ZPD needs to get back on track."

"Well, all we can do now is hope that is the case." Judy said. "Listen Nick, I don't want to bring this up again but if you're worried about what happened between me and Danny-"

"Oh don't worry about it, frankly I would've done the same thing to him." Nick said. "Between you and me, it was really only a matter of who was going to do it first."

Judy chuckled. "Yea… but do you really think what he's saying is true about how he was forced to do it?"

"Eh… It's debatable no matter what way you look at it." Nick replied. "From last week, I could tell one of Z's talents is manipulating animals enough to call his bluffs. There's no way Z would have killed Danny, he's already too valuable to him as it is with his role as a member of the mysterious five, and most likely a talent of his he may find beneficial."

"So you're saying it really was his fault for believing in Z?"

"If there were ever a normal circumstance I would say yes, but this one didn't quite seem like that way." Nick said. "He had already lost his mother, and before that even happened, on that day when myself and the other guys went to confront Z about the question of when we'd be finished with him, Z could have been able to understand the pain in his eyes from what seemed to be happening inside his head the whole time."

* * *

October 3rd, 2016, flashback

 _"Look, what Clawhauser is trying to say is that we don't think it's fair with you having us continue this sort of work for so long."_ Nick said. _"You seriously think any of us would want to stick around after all the stuff you've put us through?"_

 _"Eh, maybe not but…. But that's not the point."_ Z said hesitating a bit. _"It's just, with all the new business coming in, it's not just you five that will need to be doing the deals. This all takes time, and mammals to make those deals. And if I'm unable to have all those, then we won't be able to have enough money to keep this business from going anywhere than it is right now."_

 _"Well, what's wrong with right now?"_ Danny asked.

 _"Nothing is wrong with right now, actually."_ Z replied, as the others weren't understanding him. _"But the thing about me regarding business is that enough, is never enough."_

 _"This is preposterous."_ Clawhauser said. _"You can't simply expect us to accept this stupidity you're talking here! WE WANT TO DO THIS, AND WE WANT TO BE OVER WITH IT, THAT'S IT."_

 _"Yes, well your definition of being over with it and that's it, is a little bit different when it comes to my standards Mr. Clawhauser."_ Z claimed. _"Business is business, and sometimes you got to make tough choices such as your case. If you don't like it then we could always do what we did to Nick's mother again to your relatives, well, whoever's left at least if that's what it takes."_

 _"BAM!"_

Nick hit his paw hard onto the desk, as he stood up filled with rage after what Z just said. Z thought he may have taken what he said a little too far. He put his hoof up in front of Nick as a sign of peace.

 _"Calm down Mr. Wilde."_ Z said calmly. _"Now as I was saying, I'm sorry to be the one to tell you but this is how it's going to work with you five if you ever want to be let off the leash from us."_

 _"What about our relatives?"_ Danny asked.

 _"What about them?"_ Z asked back.

 _"Well, aren't they going to as you say, be let off the leash and be free as well?"_

Z laughed. _"Probably not."_

The four couldn't believe what they just heard. _"Excuse me?"_ Clawhauser questioned.

 _"I'm sorry, but that's all the time I've got for you four today since I got to get back to work."_ Z informed.

 _"Wait just hold on a sec-"_

 _"Do I have to ask you four again?"_ Z asked, interrupting Finnick. Z then called out to the leopard outside. _"Richard, get them out of here!"_

 _"No, nonononono hold on, what do you mean by probably not Z?"_ Danny asked.

Richard started coming into the room, along with a few other mammals to help him.

 _"What does that mean though Z?"_ Danny asked once more as he was being pulled away _. "WHAT DOES IT MEAN Z?!"_

The four were then dragged out of the room by Z's mammals and were forced to continue making their way back outside. When they were brought back outside, some of Z's mammals already had their guns drawn on them.

 _"Now if you five even think about opening that trapdoor again for the remainder of this night, I'm pretty sure you know what's going to happen next."_ Richard threatened, as him and the rest of Z's mammals started walking back through the trapdoor without Finnick, Nick, Danny, and Clawhauser.

 _"Well this was such a big help wasn't it?"_ Nick said sarcastically.

 _"W-what the hell did he mean when he said probably not when we asked if the rest of our relatives were going to be let go as well?!"_ Danny said panicking. _"WHAT THE HELL DID HE MEAN?!"_

 _"Danny, Danny, calm down!"_ Clawhauser shouted in front of Danny, trying to keep him cool.

 _"They've had my mother stuck in whatever cell they put her in for four frickin months now!"_ Danny howled. _"FOUR MONTHS! I can't have her go through this anymore because of me, I can't…. I can't, I can't, I can't, can't, can'tcan'tcan'tcan't CAN'T!"_

* * *

"He could've easily seen that as an advantage of persuasion." Nick continued. "And right when he brings up the fact that another one of his family members could get killed, it was almost as if Danny was instinctive to do the job. It's especially the case since Z allowed immunity on his family no matter the circumstance."

"It seems to me like both sides have the wrongs in this Nick." Judy said.

Nick nodded in agreement. "Come on, the ceremony should be starting soon." He said, as they were walking into the stadium.

"Right behind you…"

Both Nick and Judy were dressed up in their traditional-style uniforms, as were numerous other officers walking into the Zootennial Stadium. This stadium would typically be used for a concert where a singer such as Gazelle would be singing, but a special occasion like today was one where they needed a much bigger area than in the ZPD. Not only that, the ZPD was still currently going under maintenance after last week's _sudden_ explosion.

It wasn't just the ZPD officers from most of the precincts who showed up, but even officers, and some high ranked from other cities nearby who wanted to pay their respects. Every row of seats were in the middle of the stadium where the ceremony was taking place was nearly full. As Judy and Nick took their seats, some officers she recognized from her branch began walking onto the stage. Once most of the officers in the crowd were silent, a rhino Judy recognized as officer Mchorn walked up to the podium with what seemed to be a few papers for his speech.

Once all the noise had died down, Mchorn began speaking. _"Um, thank you all for coming here from such short notice, the ZPD sincerely appreciates it from the bottom of our hearts."_ He said into the microphone. _"…_ _. O-obviously this would be considered a shock to all of us after the events which took place only about a week ago on the 2_ _nd_ _of January. A sad, tragic and heart wrenching words are simply the minor aspect of what has happened to a great officer and chief of the ZPD."_

 _"_ _The last thing I want to hear right now is animals going through pain because of us."_ Judy thought.

 _"…_ _. We can't fix the events which took place and we can't change what has already happened."_ Mchorn continued. _"But we will be putting this in the paws of the higher power, in the hopes of ensuring whoever is responsible for this is taken down, and to never see the day of light on the streets of Zootopia ever again."_

 _"_ _If I had a nickel for every time that dream popped up in my head…"_ Nick thought.

 _"_ _Chief Bogo had goals, one of them included living up to his expectations and keeping the city out of harm's way."_ Mchorn continued. _"Even when things were to work tough for him, he only worked harder and harder in what he was doing. He never gave up, no matter what other's said to him or how he was looked at upon to the city. Day and night he worked for this city so much, he would have risked his own life if it meant keeping it safe. I remember this one case where this little boy wouldn't stop crying after hearing about house invasion that happened while he and his family were away on vacation. Even with dozens of officers nearby watching the kit in his current state, Bogo was the only one to have enough heart by simply saying to him, 'cheer up kit, it's not the end of the world.' It just comes to show, he was always there for animals in need and helped them pull through."_

 _"_ _It's normal for someone like me to cry right now, isn't it?"_ Judy thought, as she could feel a tear shed rolling down her cheeks.

 _"_ _Bogo was never one to continuously accept awards or recognition for anything after all these years with him on my side in the force."_ Mchorn stated. _"…. It's exactly the characteristics a great police officer should have, and there was no doubt whatsoever, that he shouldn't be considered one. Sure he may have been tough on many of us from an unsolved case or scheduling matter, but I think his main goal at the end of the day for all of us wasn't about making us feel bad about ourselves, but more of a way of showing us how much more potential we all had in us."_

 _"_ _That's definitely not how he saw me as, when I abandoned my post to chase down Weaselton in Little Rodentia, he nearly fired me that day!"_ Judy whispered to Nick, as Nick chuckled a little.

 _"_ _He was dedicated to a life of service this animal."_ Mchorn said. _"And to me he was one of the most caring, helpful, smartest, admired, fearless, hard-working, inspirational, supporting, and most of all courageous animals I have had the opportunity of meeting in my entire life…. To have his spirit live on, I am vowing to you all right now that I will stop at nothing, even if it costs my own life, but make sure everyone responsible for the attacks is caught. For a great animal has fallen once more to this city…. A colleague, a boss, a husband, a son, a Chief…. A friend."_

The audience clapped as Mchorn then stepped down from the podium. Judy and Nick meanwhile were still uncomfortable with the atmosphere they were putting themselves under. It never even occurred to Judy this could possibly happen, she even told Nick that herself. But now that it did, she didn't know what to think or assume anymore with any of what was happening right before her very eyes.

Another officer then came up to the podium as was recognized by Nick and Judy as Officer Jackson. _"At this time we ask everyone to please rise, and remove your hats for a moment of silence, as we remember the animal who has done so much for this city and will never be forgotten for it."_

All officers in the stadium stood up and removed their police hats from their heads to pay tribute to Bogo. Judy and Nick couldn't see it for themselves, but from the sound of absolutely _nothing_ inside the entire stadium, to them it was obvious enough that everyone in this room understood the fact that this was a crime which should never have happened. Not even, it was a crime which no one should've even thought was possible to happen.

Nick was mostly the one who assumed it in head. Judy would most likely have also, but from the looks Nick saw on her at the moment, it seemed like she was in a totally different universe. Just by looking into her eyes, he could tell she was blaming herself already once again for all of this. Nick hoped she would get over the thought and move on from it, but even he wasn't sure when that time would come.

 _"_ _You may be seated."_ Jackson said into the microphone, as the rest of the audience took a seat back down which putting their hats back on.

The rest of the ceremony continued on with a few more speeches from some animals Bogo had a close relationship with. Both Nick and Judy, however, were surprised to hear from Bogo's wife, as they had never even known this whole time they were on the force, Bogo was married. Other animals included a few more high-ranked officers such as fellow chiefs, sergeants and sheriffs who had worked with him before on separate cases connected to both branches, as well as his mother who didn't take a genius to figure out she was having a rough time coping with the loss of her own son. Sometimes Judy wanted to look away as she couldn't bear to handle the stress put in her head when a certain discussion was being talked about, but at the same time didn't want to feel like a coward who can't accept what's happened has happened.

The ceremony had then ended soon after as most of the officers had witnessed a line of other officers leading to the exit while they were saluting. Judy and Nick then saw a few of the officers from the ZPD carrying the casket filled with Bogo's remains, and slowly moving it out of the stadium and onwards into a truck for further transportation to a selected grave spot.

There were multiple officers who drove alongside the truck with the casket in it until it reached their destination, while all other officers and officials got back into their cars or cruisers and began driving back to work.

"You holding up okay from all of this?" Nick asked, as they were walking back out of the stadium. "It's just that I saw you in there looking a little more down and in your own thoughts than most of the officers in there."

"I can't deal with this right now Nick, I need to go somewhere to clear my mind for a bit." Judy said, still in shock even after the ceremony was finished.

"How about we call it a lunch break then?" Nick suggested.

"Sure, as long as I'm not reminded of the hellhole many animals have been put in, mainly from the aftermath of last week's unexpected incidents which took a larger toll onto the city than we ever thought it would."

"You've been saying the same things over and over again _all week_ Judy." Nick claimed. "You know if you can't handle the pressures inside of you, why don't you try seeing a professional? I'm sure there's a lot of therapists out there who have worked their entire lives for cases like the ones you're going through."

 _"_ _Right,_ like there really are animals out there who understand how you and I feel when having to work with a bunch of murderers and psychos, when all the while you get bombs blowing up right in front of your face." Judy said.

"Judy, I'm pretty sure you can understand my point though." Nick said. "We've been getting in too deep to all this stuff until now, that it's almost like the one who will be finishing us off in the very end is ourselves."

Judy was still too arrogant to face the facts and understanding what was best for her own personal standards. "Come on, let's just get a bite already and get back to work." She said, as she began walking back to the cruiser she and Nick drove to get to the Zootennial stadium.

 _"_ _This is definitely not what I need right now myself either…."_ Nick thought.

* * *

They decided to eat somewhere private, like their own corner in an everyday brunch restaurant. So they decided to stop at a little street place Nick went to a few times called Paula Drifty's, a good restaurant to eat at if you ever wanted something not what you would call exquisite, but plain and normal meals which could also taste great at the same time.

Judy ended up having a veggie sandwich and Nick decided to stick with something hot like soup. While Nick was sipping on it, he couldn't help but notice Judy still not having one crumb from her sandwich.

"It's not poison you know." Nick said, as Judy glared right back at him. "I'm just saying, you got to eat something sooner or later. Eating nothing isn't going to bring them back if that's what you're thinking."

Judy seemed to be jittering a little more than usual. "Maybe I'm not hungry." She said with her right paw clenched against her face.

"Well if it's not past events you're thinking about then what is?"

"Why do you care?" Judy asked at a faster pace.

"Judy, have you looked in the mirror today or anything?" Nick asked. "You seem to be shaking a little more than you usually would."

"Is that just another problem you want to put on my mind right now, huh?" Judy asked angered. "What is it with you lately Nick, do you actually like seeing me in pain from all of this, or is it simply something in which you're useless to assist me with my troubles?"

"Judy what in the world do you think you're saying right now?" Nick asked. "Where are you getting all of these wild accusations out of?"

"I-I'm sorry…" Judy said hesitating. "It's just that I forgot to take some medication this morning and I think I'm having a minor spaz about it, it's nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about?" Nick asked in disbelief. "Since when have you even began to take medication, and what kind of medication?"

"Just some antidepressants every now and then, it's nothing to worry about really."

"Judy, why haven't you told me about this already, and since when did you even start using medication?"

"Uhm, I think since Clawhauser." Judy replied. "I didn't tell you because I knew how you would react and trust me Nick, I think it's better if we don't create another problem for each other to stick to our heads. With what happened to Bogo and the rest of the problems, it tore me apart and I almost was confident enough to kill someone that day with no regrets."

"But this isn't something you should hide Judy, especially from me." Nick said, pointing to himself.

"Nick please do not do this to me now, I seriously do not have the energy to talk about this right now I- _NGH!"_ Judy made a noise of as she started feeling some pain coming from her head."

"Woah, woah, Judy are you okay?"

" _I-I'm fine, I just need to get NGH!"_ Judy shouted once more, but this time falling to her knees on the floor as she started putting hard pressure on her head from both paws.

"Okay you know what, I think it's time we left." Nick said, as he stood up from his seat and left a few bills on the table for the lunch payment. Nick then took Judy's arm and tried to hoist her back up on her feet, but Judy shoved him off.

" _NO_ , I'll be alright." Judy said, as she tried to walk out of the restaurant.

"You will not be alright Judy, you literally just collapsed onto the floor!"

"WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER UNDERSTAND THAT I'LL BE FINE?!" Judy shouted, as everyone in the restaurant turned their heads around to see what was going on.

"Uhm, is everything alright here?" A waiter walking by asked.

"U-uh, yea she's just going through a few emotional problems at the moment." Nick assured. "I can take it from here, don't worry."

"By all means." The waiter said, while walking away.

"…." Judy stayed silent for a moment after realizing herself what she just did. "Y-you know what, I-I think you're probably right after all." Judy said, as she tried to walk towards the exit but still having trouble.

Nick then rushed towards Judy once more and grabbed her right paw, as he put it around the back of his neck to help keep her stable until they reached the exit doors to the parking lot. Nick could tell Judy was trying to stay stable after what had happened back there, but if he let go then ending results for Judy would be debatable, but not in a good way.

"Get in Judy, I'm taking you to my place." Nick said, as he hoisted Judy up onto the front seat of the cruiser. "If anybody asks, I'll just tell them you're catching a little fever from cold weather today."

"What, no I don't need to rest!" Judy shouted. "I'll be fine, it will only bring in more problems and I can't have-"

"See that's the thing Judy, you are becoming _obsessed_ with problems!" Nick exclaimed. "I'm taking you back to my place because at least Amber will be able to keep an eye on you until I can finish my work and get the pills from you're apartment. I would take you to your apartment, but you'll probably be shoving yourself out the door the moment you step inside it." He said, as he closed the door on Judy's side."

* * *

Later that evening

"Need a glass of water Judy?" Amber asked, as she was holding out a glass of water to the drowsy-looking Judy laying down on the couch.

"Yea sure." Judy said, as she got up and too the glass. "Thanks Amber."

As Judy was drinking her water, Amber took a seat in front of her with the two of them now deadlocked to whatever was on the television. Judy ended up scrolling through a few of the channels to see if there was anything better on than listening to horse soap operas, but surprisingly there wasn't. Eventually Judy gave up and left it on the weather channel for all separate districts of Zootopia. Some were natural, and some were ones with large heaters activated to them depending on the majority of animals who lived there.

"So hey, I heard from Nick about the whole panic attack thing that happened earlier." Amber brought up. "So… what was that all about?"

Judy turned her head towards Amber. "Problems after another." She replied.

"Mentally or physically?"

"Mentally mainly." Judy answered. "This stuff has just… really, _really_ taken a toll on me and I have no idea what to do about it. I'm all out to any suggestion I can think of or get by someone else, but not one single time could I ever find one which actually works."

"Well, what have you tried to work on so you can't feel like crap twenty-four seven?"

"Where do I even start?" Judy wondered. "I've went from breathing exercises, to stress balls, to certain foods to eat, heck I even thought about starting cigarettes until I came to my senses about how dark down a path that really is for my health. But then again, my personal health is at risk as it is from everything that's happened…. You know when you see someone die right in front of you, it's not something you can easily forget _or_ move on from in your mind."

Amber nodded slowly to herself. "Yea, I know how that feels…."

"Oh really, what's your story?"

Just then, they heard the sound of the door opening as Judy looked behind her to see Nick walking in through the door.

"Hey, I brought the pills you asked me to bring from your apartment." Nick said, as he gave the pills and apartment keys over to Judy.

"Thanks." Judy said, as she took out a couple of stress relief pills from the bottle and swallowed them while drinking from the glass Amber gave her. "You know, I could've stayed with you until the shift was over, I would've felt even worse if you ended up coming across another one of those street stragglers again."

"It's alright Judy, it was like every other patrol we've been on so far for the last few years." Nick said, as he hung up his coat on some of the coat hooks beside his door. "You really shouldn't feel bad about not coming on _just_ this one. And you know I wouldn't be surprised if some officers having done it already."

"I know Nick and I get what you're saying but…" Judy said, still feeling down about herself. "I don't want this to become a regular and on-going this with me. I wish there was some way I could get over all these memories of our unholy times with Z, but those memories are like the perfect storm that's refusing to leave my mind no matter what I do."

"I can understand that, but that doesn't explain the reason you decided to keep it a secret from myself, but I guess I can understand where you're coming from when it comes to someone like Danny."

"You want to know the worst part happening in my mind from all this Nick?" Judy asked, as Nick shrugged. "It's the animals we affect from it all. Not just the family's victims from these weapon cases, but my _own_ friends and family. I know you've been having the same thoughts, especially after seeing what happened to your mother _happen._ "

Nick sighed. "I'll probably never get over that experience, and it's true that it's been hard for me to deal with what's gotten us here to this point in the first place. But if I stop trying now, there's no goodness which I will be getting out of it and to myself I'll just be…. Weak."

"Oh Nick…." Judy said as she got up, went over towards Nick and wrapped her arms around his waist. "You're one of the strongest beings I've ever known in my life. Sometimes it's not always physically like your own actions or even strength, but how you can comprehend yourself which can ever bring the strongest animal in the world down to tears."

"You know, sometimes it's okay to be scared when going into things." Amber bumped in. "You might not be able to beat your fears most of the time, but you can still get through them even at your own darkest time."

Nick thought about it for a moment. "I suppose that's a good way of looking at it Amber."

"Yea, thanks." Judy said, as she reached her left arm out. "You want to join in?"

"What do you mean, like a group hug?"

Judy nodded. "Like a group hug."

Amber smiled and went willingly over to Nick and Judy, as all three of them had their arms wrapped and locked around each other. None of them were ever going to be too sure of what more was down the road for them, and they weren't even positive about whether or not they could ever stop Z and his business in any sort of way. But the one thing they will always know currently, is that none of them will ever have to go through this alone, no matter the issues which may come in their way.

* * *

February 2nd, 2018, nearly one month later

" _Knock, knock, knock."_ Went the door.

"Who is it?" Mchorn asked, as he was in his office as the current chief of police, unless the government were to find a more suitable pick for the job.

" _It's Jackson."_ He replied on the other side of the door. _"I just wanted to let you know the agent taking over the weapons case has arrived."_

"Oh, I'll be right out then."

The animal was downstairs seeming to be scanning everywhere around the ZPD he could see with the briefcase in his paws.

"You're Corey Hopkins, is that correct?" Mchorn asked, as he came closer to the agent.

"Under alias terms, you are correct Mr. Mchorn." The agent said. "Now I hope you don't mind me asking this right out of the blue, but I would like to receive a few blueprints of the building's structure."

"Why would you require such details for the building immediately after you came in here?"

"It's just a little theory I've been thinking about while I was on the plane over to here." The agent replied. "Now I will need a couple days at most to look over all of the information your precinct has gathered through the course of time from this weapons case, which seems to be happening on the streets as we speak. I understand what happened to the original chief of your precinct must have been a great suffer and loss to you all."

"It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since it happened, but our officers are still pulling strong out there to catch whoever did this, lock em in a cage and throw away the key."

"Don't get too ahead of yourself Mr. Mchorn." The agent suggested. "These animals may very well be psychopaths whose main priorities are their own needs and better sufficiency in their social game, but they definitely aren't the usual petty amateurs you would see fresh off the streets. Judging from the fact that an explosion happened with not one _bit_ of footage caught on camera beforehand, along with a far range to a high end floor of a building making the shot straight in the heart of city's own mayor, they've shown these incidents to you as a way of telling you what they're truly capable of doing. Anyone who would try to take advantage of these animals' capabilities should be considered fools in my opinion."

"It's not that we try to take advantage of them, it's that we try to stay one step ahead of them if we want to put an end to them."

"You should however stay careful with where you and your officers are stepping however Mr. Mchorn." The agent noted. "I've seen many case in my days as an agent which have led to disastrous outcomes when we assume we're always one step ahead of the enemy. Just something to keep in mind."

Mchorn nodded to the agent. "We'll try our best." He said. "Listen, I hate to bother you with asking this but why do you need to be possessing an actual fire arm currently at the moment?"

"It's how I do things." The agent answered. "Whether you like it or not, you're going to have to accept it because this is for my own safety. I'm aware of the dangers one can be putting themselves under if they were to be taking my place at the moment. But it's also exactly why they sent me."

"Okay, fair enough." Mchorn said. "Now I was just about to be heading out for the night also in case you were wondering if I was available to pull out a few files for you."

"No worries, rest assured I can look at what I got in the meantime." The agent said, as he held out his paw. "It's been nice to be acquainted with you Mr. Mchorn."

"Likewise." Mchorn said, as he accepted his handshake. "But as the current chief of police, I see no need to keep your identity a secret with an alias of Corey Hopkins as many officers including myself and their actions have already been proven to be innocent based on their activities."

"Ah, so you want this to be shown as a sign of trust in one another?"

"You can look at it that way if you want, not to suggest any other methods or such towards you." Mchorn explained. "I don't hold anything or any grudge towards your strategies of catching criminals such as this, as long as it's fair and will leave them all in prison."

The agent nodded. "Couldn't have said it any better myself."

Mchorn chuckled "I'll take that as a compliment. So, will you ever tell me your real name, if not I would definitely understand the reasoning behind it."

"Savage."

Mchorn didn't get what he meant at first. "I-I'm sorry can you repeat that for me?"

"My name." The agent replied calmly. "Jack Savage."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 44, Evil Or Not...**


	45. Evil Or Not

**Chapter 44: Evil Or Not…**

March 1st, 2018

Mr. Otterton was just finishing a few combinations of flowers from his flower shop when he notice the work phone ringing. When he checked to see the label of the number, he could tell who it was and why this animal was calling him.

Knowing who it was, Otterton picked up the phone. "Hi honey, how are you?" He asked.

 _"_ _I'm good sweetie thanks, I just wanted to know when you'd be home around since it's almost ten now and Carlton and Francis are already asleep, but with only the mommy to tuck them in tonight."_

Mr. Otterton laughed. "Yea I'm sorry I had to leave you with the boys on your own tonight. I wanted to finish up the final touches on this flower mixture of Carnation, Alstroemeria, Chrysanthemum, and Brodiaea for this wedding happening in the downtown district tomorrow."

 _"_ _Ooooh, sounds fancy."_

"Yes, which is why they've called up yours truly to do the flowers for them during both the ceremony, the photo shots, _and_ the party itself." Mr. Otterton explained. "They even sent me an invitation to the party afterwards on behalf of the work I'm doing for them."

 _"_ _Well that's sweet of them, isn't it?"_

"I guess, and I would've gone to that skunk pairs' party if I wasn't already setting up a few packages of flowers that have been ordered for a badger, who was shot to death at a parking lot somewhere in Savannah central."

 _"_ _Ah yes, I've heard about that story on the news a few days ago, it's very tragic…"_ Mrs. Otterton said. _"So when do you think you'll be home by?"_

"Well, I can finish the rest of the funeral flowers tomorrow, but I would like to finish up with the wedding combo of flowers tonight so I can get off at an earlier time than usual tomorrow. After all, I know Carlton's big indoor soccer game will be happening then."

 _"_ _Oh, I'm so glad you remembered!"_

"Wouldn't miss it for the world baby." Mr. Otterton said. "I think I'll be here for another half hour or so before I close up shop for the rest of the night, and I'm sorry if I'll end up waking you when I get home because of it."

 _"_ _Oh it's okay honey, as long as you keep your promise for tomorrow then it's fine by me."_ Mrs. Otterton said in understanding. _"Alright, well then I guess I'll be seeing you in the morning. But please don't break that promise."_

"I won't, don't you worry." Mr. Otterton assured. "You have my word on it so you can trust me being there, I promise."

 _"_ _I believe you."_ Mrs. Otterton said. _"I'll see you in the morning."_

"Okay, I love you and I will see you then." Mr. Otterton said, as he hung up the phone.

While he was sorting out some extra flowers to fit in with the perfect pattern he had going on with the lining and color, he like any father now couldn't help but think about the family he needed to go home to. While he was finishing up planting a few more carnations onto the pot, he started hearing an ongoing sound coming from the distance. The sound was indeed familiar to him, almost as if it was a honking sound from a car that wouldn't end. Even after a minute the sound wasn't stopping, so he decided to take a little peak outside to see what it was all about.

It sounded like it was definitely close by, but somewhere causing the sound to be blocked by something like a wall, almost as if it was coming from a nearby alleyway. The suspicious honking sound finally stopped, but that still didn't stop Mr. Ottertons suspicions on what the noise was all about in the first place. Then out of nowhere, loud boom sounds began coming from the same place the honking sound seemed to be coming from. He ended up walking to the nearest alleyway he could find, but to his surprise was a large looking van right inside the alleyway shining the car lights into his eyes. He thought he would've heard a response by now from standing in front of the van with the animal seeming to be in it, but still nothing was happening.

"Mr. Driver, was that you making all that noise earlier?" Otterton called out. "Mr. Driver can you hear what I'm trying to say right now!" He shouted, but with no response.

Mr. Otterton then decided to walk towards the side of the van to see why he wasn't responding, as he did see an animal figure coming from inside the van. But once he went to the side, he ended up slipping to the ground on something by accident. It wasn't ice, nor was it garbage of any type, but still a very warm type of liquid. When he showed his paw in the light to see what he had slipped on by accident, the eyes of fear immediately took over his body after realizing what it was.

 _"_ _Blood…"_ He thought.

* * *

February 4th, 2018, 1 month earlier

"Does it ever bother you on the fact the same thing could happen to this Corey Hopkins guy, or whoever the heck he is?" Judy asked, as she and Nick were walking to the bullpen for some announcements from the new agent who had begun heading the weapons case.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Nick said. "If what the rumors say is true then he's been able to close similar and multiple high end cases everywhere he's been up for the challenge, it must imply the fact he knows a lot about the criminal mind. He could even know their next moves based on the crime scene and patterns themselves."

"It's funny, you can make one sentence sound so good about him that it only brings more worries to me." Judy said. "Nick this is Z we're thinking about, the guy who blew up a good chunk of the ZPD only to tie up loose ends. If he ever finds out about this guy and his _real_ name, who knows what kind of outcome we're talking here."

"Well as long as he isn't able to get a good enough lead from this case which will lead to problems with Z, it doesn't seem like we'll have much to worry about."

"Well I guess we're about to find out his level of talent then." Judy said, as she and Nick began walking towards the bullpen. "I think he's been wanting to discuss an overview of the cases and see where our branch is at with suspects and evidence."

As they walked into the bullpen, there were more than the typical amount of officers there in the room than there usually would be once assignments were beginning to be handed out. Judy and Nick were luckily able to get to their usual seat, but even for those two it was still a little cramped.

"I guess a lot of officers want to hear what this guy has to say." Nick said.

"It looks like it." Judy said looking around.

A few minutes later, the door finally opened with the agent walking into the room. The room immediately became dead silent as everyone took a look at what kind of an agent he really was. He then leaped up to the podium and began sorting out a few papers and files for preparation.

 _"_ _I told you he was a rabbit."_ Judy whispered to Nick.

 _"_ _I still call that an educated guess."_ Nick whispered back, as Judy rolled her eyes and kept her attention on the speaker.

"Good morning everybody." The agent said. "My name is agent Corey Hopkins and I will be taking over this weapons case the city's been having problems with until further notice. If anyone here wants to know more personal things such as where I'm from, my background or what agency sent me, all that information will be remained classified until further notice. Now if you all do what I say and when I say it, I do believe we'll all get along just fine. Now figuratively speaking, I'm aware of the elephant in the room with the former chief of police and another one of your officers having been killed a little over a month ago by now. Some of you might not like my methods and would still prefer the same ones your former head of this investigation made."

 _"_ _No doubt about it by the way you're talking to them right now."_ Nick thought.

"Well I got news for all those officers." Hopkins informed. "This is my investigation now, and you will follow _my_ rules and orders. Anyone who still chooses to not comply, you either suck it up or find a new line of work in or out of the ZPD. Frankly I could care less about which way you decide to go or even alternates, as long as it's not interfering with our work on this case. You all follow my orders, listen to what I'm saying, and soon enough we _will_ catch these criminals."

Judy looked around for facial expressions to see if there were any animals who stood out to already not have an interest in this guy, but it seemed like most of them were more focused on this agent and what he has to say than worrying about how they're going to work with him.

"Let's start shall we?" Jack said, as started taking a few pictures out of the profiles on the podium. "Let's first discuss the hard part and recap first about the events of the 29th of December in 2017, to the 2nd of January 2018. First we have the incident at Rock Sinvarto, leaving four rams and one lamb dead with the weapon of choice seeming to be a knife in this one. My theory, this is not the work of the weapon manufacturers."

There was immediate buzzing now going around from every officer in the room. _"Forgive me for interrupting, but we already concluded the weapon manufacturers were already behind this because as of now they're the only ones capable of doing it."_ An officer called out.

"That's a fair statement officer." Hopkins said. "But I've looked at all the profiles of this case and from every file I looked at from robberies, to missing animals, to murders, almost every single one of those cases involved a gun in it. No knives, bombs, poison or tasers, _just guns_. However, the main weapons used in this certain case was sizeable enough to fit as army knife class material. Not only that, looking at the files I've also noticed not one animal was ever found as a victim, nor witness of the crimes even if they were knocked out unconscious. But when you look at Rock Sinvarto, notice how not _one_ guard was needed to be taken out in the process, as many were left unaware of the situation happening at that time either because they were elsewhere in the prison, or because one may have bribed them to keep their mouths shut and eyes looked in the other direction. Judging from this speculation, whoever these animals were, you can say they're the type of hitmammals who deal their targets, and their targets _only._ "

 _"_ _But sir, you can't deny the fact that this occurrence happened just less than a week before the crimes taking place on the 2_ _nd_ _of January."_ Another officer called out.

"It might not have been the animals possessing the weapons at this point in time, but it makes it more likely for these animals responsible for the Rock Sinvarto attack to have been hired by them." Hopkins predicted. "It's known the weapons animals most likely knew themselves how high the risk would be if they ended up pulling an inside job, so there must be somebody, most likely the brains of the organization who has contacts to these animals and gets them to do what he or she wants. That actually now brings us to the explosion on the 2nd of January."

 _"_ _This guy doesn't seem like he could be wrong about his predictions, maybe he really is as good as they say he is in this stuff."_ Nick thought.

"The explosion occurred in the ZPD on the second floor office building, taking the lives of Chief Bogo and Officer Snarlbuff." Hopkins continued. "Now I looked through the surveillance footage from the day before the explosion took place and I saw the same think you all did, nothing. That is why I looked through the blueprints of the structure itself inside and out of the building to see if there was anything we may have missed about the culprit's entry point. That's when I took a closer examination of the ventilation system."

 _"_ _The ventilation system?"_ Judy thought, wondering what he meant.

"It seems that your cameras have a blind spot well enough for professionals to make their way around and get inside, located right by the emergency exit at the back of the building." Hopkins said, as he was sticking a blueprint of the building onto the board while pointing to each area. "From the looks of it, the animals for this job needed to have been small in order to fit through the vents, gerbil size at the very least if they wanted to carry the right equipment out towards the next vent leading to the office of Bogo where no camera was placed for them needing to be aware of."

 _"_ _Hold on, why would you say they would be gerbil sized if the equipment you suspect they brought would have been bigger than them?"_ An officer called out.

"Because only gerbils or smaller would be able to reattach the screws of the vent with their smalls arms in Bogo's office without needing someone to stay behind and find an alternate route, it's also why small animals are typically the most frequent type of animals to pull off cat-burglaries." Hopkins answered. "And once again, these had to have been known associates of the weapons business, otherwise this incident would've happened _much_ earlier if they had the ability to do it themselves."

 _"_ _How could I have never thought about it before, the ventilation system makes an easy entrance and exit to anyone if their careful enough."_ Nick thought.

"As for the bombs themselves, the remains of them never left any finger prints which will also indicate that this was a planned out assassination, and now bringing us to the attack on mayor Lionheart." Hopkins said, as he place a few of the crime scene photos up from Lionheart's office. "The weapon used for this was never found and has most likely been incinerated by now to leave no further evidence behind, but the bullet used for this case was a .308 Winchester found at the scene. The bullet choice for this however is suspicious as the bullet found at the scene would typically be used only for competition targeting games and not the main choice to use for a live target. Comparing it to something such as a 7.62x51mm NATO, it's mere child's play for this circumstance. While it does do the job, the bullet may have been harder to shoot depending on the rifle of choice. But either way, the shooter was able to hit _exactly_ in the heart and eliminating his target perfectly, something very few have the ability to do. We're looking at an animal who is completely aware about the use of a rifle, if not a natural at it, yet has a lack of information mainly about the use of equipment with a sniper rifle. It's almost as if he had _just_ started practicing at his skills once more in a desperate attempt to prepare for that one particular moment."

 _"_ _I sure hope officer Wolford isn't getting any funny ideas about his brother now…."_ Judy thought, as she slightly looked behind her in Wolford's direction.

"I'd like to thank everyone who came into this room for my discussion about the overview of this case and my own thoughts about it, but now it's time for me to begin discussing the main topics we need to begin working on." Hopkins said.

More whispers continued to come around the room still, as Hopkins took down the information he put up on the board and had begun to put up new looking profiles and locations.

"First off, the big question all of us have after these three separate attacks is, why them and why now?" Hopkins said rhetorically. "The best explanation is a trigger. A certain form of event which had to have taken place beforehand, and soon resulting in the outcome of each separate incident. It could be possible Bogo had figured out something big in the case, big enough at least for the weapon manufacturers to somehow find out about it before we did and take an unimaginable act of precaution to ensure they wouldn't get caught. As for Lionheart and Bellwether, it was all an act of motivation. Looking at some of the past news conferences I've seen from Lionheart, there were some points in what made these criminals seem like nothing but a street gang and more containable than the night howlers case. Course so to speak, they obviously don't see themselves as such, so this would infuriate them to create instinctive moves on their behalf because if word was getting around enough on the streets regarding the professionalism of the group, less buyers would come in for them and thus less of a good paycheck at the end of the week."

 _"_ _My word, this guy really can see into every move Z has done to make those events possible, he's got to have experience on at least a hundred or more cases to be this good."_ Nick thought.

"But back to Chief Bogo, I would like to get a team of officers to investigate his actions at least a month before the case of the bombing." Hopkins ordered. "There's a good chance that if he did figure something out from the span of time he had before the bombing, we may be able to find out what it was if we begin to recall every single step he took up the point of the attack on the 2nd of January."

 _Um, how would we be deciding the groups?"_ An officer called out.

"It wouldn't considerably matter in this case as all of you have seen Bogo everyday up until what happened, but if there are some officers in the room who know any personal conversations with him regarding this case, then I would like those officers to step forward and join the group, as well as having a conversation privately if it in fact is confidential." Hopkins requested.

 _"_ _I still don't quite understand what Bogo could've found out about Z that led him to suspicions of his own."_ Judy thought. _"Could it have something to do with the death of Z's former wife back at the abandoned office building in the Canal District?"_

"There will also indeed be a second group to further analyze the weapon groups past actions." Hopkins said. "There's a quote I've known about for a while and it goes, 'An expert in anything was once a beginner.' This group has been doing illegal weapon selling throughout the city and further for over twenty years with a good estimate. However, 2016 was the start of their mistakes beginning with a few missing mammal cases throughout the city."

 _"_ _Wait a second, he doesn't mean all the way back until…"_ Nick thought.

"Let's go ahead with the list of the nine mammals having gone missing in the months of May and June." Hopkins said, as he stuck up all the profiles onto the board. "Here we have Bucky Oryx-Antlerson, Jefferson Trunkbrit, Shalvick Pritelli, Ill Furverrit, Janett Pawling, Jesse Stromhill, Phillip Harrison, Amanda Boslivy, and Lenard Jarvis. To those who require a memory recall, these nine were the first few mammals to have gone missing in the case regarding the weapons group, which is why I would like some of you to go over any of the cases or reports during that time which may stick out to what we are handling as of now in regards to the weapon criminals."

 _"_ _Sir we've tried looking for any cases involving weaponry during that period already, but none were ever popping up during the time those nine mammals went missing."_ An officer pointed out.

"Well then maybe you weren't looking hard enough." Hopkins countered, surprising a few officers in the room. "You say you looked for any regarding lethal weaponry, but is that all you looked at? Surely you would've taken a look at other similar reports or cases during that time and not all directly involving weapons, am I correct?" He asked, as chatting began going around the room with not one answer back from Hopkins. "I didn't think so. Now I would like all of you to create another group for that work and if you're lucky, you may stumble upon a key element you missed the first time you checked. Once that is finished, if you find anything that sticks out then bring the files to me for possible speculations on that report or case."

 _"_ _You don't suppose someone will dig up our report from that suspicious bag incident in Sahara Square, do you?"_ Judy whispered to Nick.

 _"_ _Even if they do Judy, what more can we tell them that Z won't find out about sooner or later?"_ Nick whispered back. _"Do you remember with the fake bodies and the decay Z noticed well enough to speculate we were showing false bodies, as well as the outcome of that day? It's just not worth the risk carrots."_

"That's all I wanted to discuss for today, and if anyone is willing to join the first couple groups who think they are capable to do of what I'm asking, then by all means." Hopkins offered. "However, if there isn't enough animals working on the assignment, then I will have no choice but to select officers myself and request that they join in on the given assignment. I'm not requesting any of you to be working overtime for most of the research you must take your time conducting thoroughly, but I want this done fast so we can move along with it quickly before anything else unexpected were to happen anytime possible. That is all I wanted to say for today, you may now direct your attention to your standby Chief Mchorn, who will be handing out your assignments for the remainder of the day." He said, as he stepped off the podium.

Some officers had begun to leave the room as they were only there to get to know the animal replacing Chief Bogo from his role as the head of the weapon manufacturers case. Many were impressed by his thinking, the knowledge backing up his own theories and break-down skills of each case he was discussing towards the other officers, but some weren't very into his personality after talking back to one of the officers about his possible lack of skill. The rest of the officers soon left too, after receiving their daily assignments with the majority of them walking towards their cruisers, including Judy and Nick.

"Nick." Judy said, stopping while holding onto Nick's arm. "I think there's a few things we should consider talking privately about this new agent. We don't want anyone to overhear or leak anything else about this guy."

Nick was surprised after listening to what Judy was all of a sudden informing him about. "Uh sure, we can talk about it once we get to the cruiser, but we don't want dispatch or anyone listening into the cruiser at the moment to be hearing us."

"Then we can talk about it before we get in, but come on let's get going."

Luckily for Judy and Nick, it was sunny out and rain or snow wouldn't end up causing an inconvenience for the two. But despite that, the temperature was still cooler than the two would want it to be on an average day of February.

Judy did a quick lookout check for any animals nearby before speaking. "I know who he is."

Nick cocked an eyebrow as her words had continued to interest him. "Oh really, sounds to me then like you recognize him from somewhere."

Judy nodded. "I've seen his face before back in Bunny Burrow six years ago while I was starting in university, and there was a case he worked on close to where I was studying."

"Is that so, what were the cases based off of?"

"A few major banks in the urban areas that were robbed, but that's not important." Judy replied. "Even so, after I heard about his success in solving the case, I searched him up on the internet and found _multiple_ articles about his other work. It was actually very fascinating looking at his methods, and he was the one who inspired me to get my siblings to attach a well hidden recording inside the carrot pen I used to have. It's a shame Z had to break it a while back though, but I've been thinking about asking them to make me another one."

"So is he well known everywhere as a detective more like?"

"Certain places yes, but up until now he never needed to visit Zootopia for a case so it's unlikely for even the police to have searched up or found anything about him." Judy predicted. "Very few animals in this city are not aware of who he is because of that fact but as for those who do, they know him as Jack Savage. He's had credit for leading over 150 solved cases of numerous criminal acts in the last 10 years of his work as an agent. At least 20 of those cases were originally thought to be unsolvable, and 2 of those cases led him to successfully bringing down a couple of minor criminal organizations."

"Sounds to me like you know more than just about who he is."

" _Okay,_ I might have checked out a bit more information during the meeting, but it was only to see if this guy was serious to what he was telling us." Judy admitted.

"Uh huh."

"But continuing, if he is as professional as others say he is, then he could have the entire crew of Z's locked up by the end of this year at the most, assuming his strategies of catching criminals on the run for years is useful." Judy said. "Z however isn't dumb, he could figure out who Savage is in no time once he sees his face."

"Exactly, so how do we know Z isn't going to try to do the same thing he had already done to Bogo and the rest?"

Judy shrugged. "Experience if we're lucky. I'm assuming he's been targeted before in the line of work, and I'm also assuming this isn't going to be the first time he's needed to take a life because of such if it comes down to it."

"…." Nick had a paused expression on himself all of a sudden, catching Judy's attention.

"What is it Nick?"

"Judy, I…" Nick said hesitating, while trying to put his words in the way he wanted to. "What if… what if the day comes when we may need to, you know…"

"Kill someone?" Judy asked, as Nick slowly nodded. There was an awkward silence for a moment between the two until Judy sighed saying, "I try not to think about it too much Nick, I know the work we've been having to do for Z is rather dangerous."

"Yea no kidding."

"But at the rate we've been doing deals, there's probably a certain aspect of respect our buyers would have for us since we give them what they want, they give us what we're required to get and everyone's happy."

"It definitely wasn't like that at first."

"Okay so we may have had a few bumps along the way, and yes some lives were lost in the process of it all…" Judy said, while thinking about the horrible memories from the unsuccessful trades in the past. "But we seem to be having a good thing going on for the rest of the deals up to now so I wouldn't worry about it."

"Good thing going on?" Nick asked. "There is no _good thing_ going on currently Judy. there's only illegal trades of weapons that can take close enough to about 10 or more lives per bag we trade, in which we're lucky enough to have the courtesy of not getting robbed or ever shot at by anyone."

"They know we have guns on us as well, it's not like any one of our buyers is desperate enough they'll have to put a sniper on a roof to get the angle on us." Judy explained. "And sooner or later they'll know we're not killers, proving how we we've dealt with our trades even when a problem stuck up in the heat of a conversation now."

"Danny's a killer." Nick pointed out. "And so was Clawhauser and Finnick, but look where that violence got them."

"Danny's now become a liability Nick, and I've got a pretty good feeling you haven't spoken to him ever since he and I got into a fight in Z's equipment bunker at Rainforest District." Judy said. "I know what he did was incredibly stupid, but staying mad at each other isn't going to solve anything, even if I wish it could. So it's best if we just act like it didn't happen for now, and deal with it properly when the time is right if you understand what I mean." She said, as she opened the door to the driver's seat and hopped in.

"You say that about everything Judy, let's not forget who started that fight because of a certain rabbits incapability to hold it in." Nick argued. "….Well I'm just sick of it. Always standing down when you know you want to fight? Sometimes that's not acting brave Judy, sometimes it's acting like a coward."

"Just get in already Nick." Judy said, as she slammed her car side door shut.

Nick on the other paw stood there for a moment unable to sit well on Judy's opinions. _"She acted like she wanted to rip Z's throat out for what he made happen to Bogo, now she's back to how she was originally and just wants to go with the flow again."_ Nick thought. _"This is not the Judy Hopps I know."_

* * *

February 7th, 2018, three days later, night time

"What's the word on the streets?" A Jaguar asked.

"All we know is that the guns were originally sold to The Possum gang in Zootopia, seeing as how there's a criminal organization inside the city at the moment, who've been caught with an M1911 pistol." A camel replied. "No other animals out there who have tried to manufacture the same weapons they've been making have been able to keep up with the same excellent condition they've got. Also, M1911's have never been known to be sold to anyone, except that organization hiding in Zootopia when the police recovered it from a crime scene."

"Alright so we know the weapons The Possum used on us originated from seemingly high-classed criminals, and they're somewhere in Zootopia." The jaguar said, thinking about it. "Hmm… this doesn't sound like an easy enough group to take on with only the five of us."

"Sean, you know _exactly_ what our boss will do to us if we come back to him empty pawed."

"I know Joseph, I know." Sean said. "We've done searching like this in the past and succeeded, but it seems to me we'll only be capable of taking out the brains of the organization if we want to satisfy the boss. With him or her gone, there will be less competition out there since we'll sooner or later be the only gang to have possession of a weapon from the guns we recovered from The Possum gang, putting us to the top of the dangerous crews."

"Mother's Savage as number one, I like the sound of that." Joseph said, smiling. "Just think about all the money we can make in the future if we succeed!"

"Yes, but let's not get too distracted from that thought." Sean said. "Remember we're not just doing it for competition, The Possum were able to take out six of our guys with those weapons. Now we may have been able to put that gang in their place even when they ambushed us, but we don't plan on letting anyone get away with the deaths of our friends."

"Yea you're right, sorry I got a little carried away on that part." Joseph said. "So what's the plan here then to get at these guys?"

"First off we're going to need to find someone who works for the weapon manufacturers, then we're going to get them to tell us who his boss is."

"What if the worker doesn't even know who he is?"

"Hmm…" Sean said, while thinking about it. "Then I say we're going to have to make them tell us more about _whose_ been _selling_ them."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 45, Revenge Affects Both Sides...**

 **Fun fact: The two gangs mentioned at the end of this chapter, The Possum and Mother's Savage were mentioned earlier in chapter 38 Natural Instincts. The Possum were buying from Nick and Judy (obviously masked) and Biggy mentioned to Chip, while he was phoning him and waiting in the van, that they were planning to use the weapons on a much larger group known as Mother's Savage.**


	46. Revenge Affects Both Sides

**Chapter 45: Revenge Affects Both Sides...**

February 11th, 2018, four days later

"I miss you a lot, you know that right?" An animal asked, as he was on the phone with someone else.

 _"_ _Oh Mr. Savage, since when have you started to become the compassionate type?"_ The voice on the other end asked.

"Probably since I met you Skye."

There was laughing heard from Skye on the other end. _"And yet you're somehow also the funny type. So hey, I don't mean to be so pushy on this but when are you coming back home?"_

"To Trisbolt?"

 _"_ _Well what other city could you be thinking about silly?"_

Savage thought about it for a moment. "I don't know yet, could be a couple months if I get lucky enough to find a lead soon. I knew I should've picked another short assignment, you wouldn't believe the criminal organization I'm up against here in the city of Zootopia."

 _"_ _Oh, I'm completely aware of the issues at paw for that city Jack."_ Skye said. _"It's been all over the news for the past few weeks now here. Are you sure you can handle yourself while you're there? I knew I should've asked the director to be assigned the mission with you, what you're trying to catch doesn't sound like any average criminal you would usually take down on a regular basis here."_

"It's okay Skye, I've had close calls such as this before, remember during the copy-cat case and how he had me tied up with a gun to my head?" Savage asked. "But I still managed to make it out because of you."

 _"_ _Barely Jack, Barely."_ Skye said. _"And because it was a personal case, don't forget most of the Bureau found out about our relationship in order to track down your location. But this time I'm not going to be able to be by your side, and I worry for you because of it."_

"Skye…" Savage said hesitating. "I'm a rabbit and you're a fox. But we're both animals and have feelings, so what makes us different from any other couples out there, I mean isn't that what love is all about? You know to be perfectly honest, before we got another murder case for the copy-cat killer, I was planning to inform everyone at headquarters about you and me."

 _"_ _Jack…"_ Skye said in disbelief.

" _I know,_ I know how you would've taken it, but from what I've learned in the line of duty after all these years is some secrets are just not worth keeping from others." Savage said. "You understand what I mean when I tell you that, right?"

 _"_ _Oh of course I do Jack."_ Skye replied. _"But what you're investigating into is no secret, not anymore at least. And if what you're telling me is true about the concept of love, then you should know how worried I am for you and this mission you're willingly participating in."_

"I know you do, but if I had a dollar for every time you told me that before I went off for another investigation." Jack said, chuckling. "Besides Skye, don't count yourself out of this. I hear there's a few missing mammal cases last seen somewhere out in the Kafya Desert, which isn't too far from Zootopia by drive if my knowledge is correct."

 _"_ _You're right, but it's why I decided to ask you when you'd be coming home."_ Skye said. _"I wanted to see if I could be able to visit you or not."_

 _"_ _KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK."_

"Oh, sorry Skye but it looks like we're going to have to continue this conversation later." Savage said. "Someone's at the door hopefully to give me any good starts to this investigation, otherwise I'm going to have to do the old instinctive stakeout and waiting way."

Skye sighed. _"Okay call me later today I hope, whenever you get the chance."_

"Crossing my heart on that one." Savage said, as he hung up and placed his cellphone back in his pocket to ensure no distractions. "Doors open, come in!" He called out.

The door opened wide, as a wolf ZPD officer was walking in. "Ah good morning Mr. Hopkins, Officer Wolford." He said, introducing himself. "I took priority in researching for any reports or cases we may have missed during the time the first few missing mammal cases came in for the Weapon Manufacturers case."

"Yes, I know who you are Mr. Wolford." Savage said. "If there's one thing you should know about me, I don't forget a name as easily as others would, then again most rabbits are commonly like that."

"Oh, I suppose I'll keep that in mind for when the next time comes."

"So by the looks of it with the folders you got in your paws, it seems like there's something you want to show me?" Savage asked.

"Uh yes there is." Wolford answered. "You see, I was looking into any of the questionable reports or cases and crossed-referenced the list to the reports in month of May, and there was one report that stood out to me currently from what we can understand about up until now."

"Show me the report." Savage said, holding his paw out for the folder.

Wolford then handed him the report with a few other files still in his paws. "This incident involved witnesses spotting a bunch of unidentified bags leading in and out of the streets Warner and Scorch located in Sahara Square, without any knowledge from the public as to the main substances in those bags. This caught some animals' curiosity as every time somebody _were_ to ask any of these animals, no response would come in return. Normally they would've expect a, _non of your business_ sort of answer."

"And who were the officers in charge of what I presume was an undercover stakeout?" Savage asked, still reading the report from that day.

"There were three overall, one usual patrol on the day and two officers who were in fact undercover while scanning the two streets from a high point view." Wolford explained, as he put the three officers' profiles on the desk. "But scratching the patrol officer because Officer Pancho died last march, that leave Officers Wilde and Hopps."

"Wait a minute…" Savage said, while taking a look at the two officers' profiles. "Nicholas Wilde and Judith Hopps? They were the ones I noticed on the news for their success on catching Bellwether and her ram crew responsible for the night howlers case. Only problem is it says here on the report that nothing out of the ordinary was spotted from where they were staking out, and it was confirmed no one else in the public but them knew about this assignment."

"It's the best I could find as of now from June and May, but I'll give you a heads up if I find anything else." Wolford said, as he began walking towards the door.

"Hold on, before you leave I want you to do something for me, now that this report has caught my interest."

* * *

Today was a slow day for Nick and Judy as they had the chance to try and catch up on a bit of paperwork they had limited time to do for certain days of the week. To no surprise from Nick, Judy had already been finished with her work and was now occupying herself by fiddling with her phone, while waiting for her and Nick's lunch break to come. To Nick, this day felt more like a relief day to him as the past few days had felt rather awkward to him after he and Judy continued to have their doubts for both Z, and one another.

Nonetheless, the purpose of the silence in the room from both of them only made things more uncomfortable for Nick, getting him to have an even bigger sense of distraction when it came to the irritating sense and his inability to focus on writing anything. In fact, only then did Nick realize he hadn't written anything on his paper for more than two hours now. Right now the best thing he could use was a distractions from the stressful thoughts putting pressure in his head.

"Whose turn is it today?" Nick asked, turning to Judy's direction.

Judy looked up from her phone wondering what Nick meant by that. "What?" She asked.

"Lunch, you know, whose turn is it to decide where we're going to grab a bite in an hour or so from now."

Judy thought about it for a second before shrugging. "I don't really care, you could pick the place if you want since I'm all up for anything really." She said, turning her face back towards her phone.

"Oh, okay yea that's fine by me." Nick said, as he turned his face the other way as well. _"That didn't even help one bit."_ He thought.

"Hang on, you would always ask me about lunch when we're either downstairs after working in the office or driving across a few of the fast food areas during twelve." Judy pointed out, turning her whole body towards Nick now. "So… why would you be asking me about an hour earlier than usual?"

 _"_ _She knows exactly when I ask her about lunch by now?"_ Nick thought, feeling like he underestimated his own assumptions about Judy's knowledge of him. "O-oh did I?" He asked. "I guess I lost track of the time while I was all focused on this report of a vandalism capture we had last week."

"That's such a lie, I haven't heard a scratch from your pen all day." Judy said, seeing through Nick's excuse as she went up over to him to see if he really did write anything down.

"Alright, you got me." Nick said, laying his paws on his face in embarrassment.

"Nick what's been going on with you lately, I've seen you silent as a ghost ever since that talk we had about the Savage guy." Judy said. "Is there something you've been meaning to get off your chest for a while or…."

Nick figured he may as well say it and get it over with. "Judy don't take this the wrong way, but have we-"

Just then, a voice was heard on Judy's radio. _"Officer Hopps please respond."_

Judy took her radio out from the belt she was wearing and set the microphone on for her to reply back. "This is Officer Hopps speaking, what's the problem?"

 _"_ _This is Officer Wolford, I've been instructed by agent Corey Hopkins to inform you that he would like you and Officer Wilde to come and meet him in his office for a brief discussion about a case."_

Both Nick and Judy looked at each other with concerned looks, as both were fearing the possibility of having been found out. "Which case would he want us to discuss?" She asked back.

 _"_ _There was this report back in 2016 about a suspicious movement of unknown substances seen in some bags by a few witness, and Hopkins would like to go over it with both of you."_ Wolford explained. _"He believes it may have something to do with the weapons case in its early stages of mistakes predicting to have been made during the months of May and June of 2016."_

"Uh, sure we got some time to spare here, tell him we'll be over to his office in about five minutes or less."

 _"_ _Copy that."_ Wolford said, before turning off his radio.

"Do you think he knows about us?" Judy asked.

"No, no that's impossible Judy, no evidence could have ever traced back to us so it can't be that."

"But I told you how good this guy is with his work as an agent, how do we know this isn't going to be an ambush from every corner we look?"

"Judy, if it was then they would've done it by now." Nick assumed. "I'm guessing he had a hunch about the report from the earlier days of unknown bag activity, and now wants us to come up and explain what we know. Besides, you and I knew this day would come sooner or later, so we're just gonna have to suck it up again and hope he'll buy whatever it is we tell him."

"Even today I still regret forging that dumb report." Judy said. "And now I have to lie in front of an agent who could see the eyes of a criminal from a mile away?"

"I doubt he's ever seen one in uniform though." Nick said. "Look we'll be fine, and we better get there soon otherwise our extra time we got might assume we're having a conversation about _it_ right now."

"Fine."

* * *

"You wanted to see us Mr. Hopkins?" Nick asked, as he walked into the office with Judy by his side.

"Ah yes, Mr. Wilde and Miss Hopps I presume?" Savage asked. "I'm sure you know by now that I'm better known as agent Corey Hopkins."

"Oh for sure, we were actually present when you were discussing your overview and your own assignments for other officers to assist you with." Judy said.

"Well then no need to fiddle on the introductory towards one another, why don't we have a seat?" Savage asked, as he took a seat in front of his desk while Judy and Nick took seats in their own chairs in front of him. "So as Judy had just brought up, I _have_ been getting a few of the officers to do some research for me. Not too long ago, Officer Wolford came into my room and showed me this report you both did on the 30th of May in 2016." He said, pointing to the file on his desk. "This report involved a group of animals raising concerns for nearby citizens about the bags they were carrying around and when asked what was in it, there was no reply."

"Oh yea, Bogo handed us that report twice." Judy brought up. "The first time it was in uniform, but the second time was undercover so nobody on the street at that time would suspect us as police officers."

"Ah, so you do remember." Savage said. "Well it may have been a long time ago indeed, but we have reasons to believe it may have been more than just a normal act of hiding personal values from the public. It is possible there could have been sightings of bags with real guns or gun material."

"Really?" Nick asked. "From where we were positioned, we never saw anything from that day while we were looking."

"Where were you positioned?"

"At a nearby parking centre since we knew it was the best location to inspect both streets at once." Judy stated. "Nothing quite stood out of the ordinary during that time however."

"Says here on both reports you two wrote, the streets Warner and Scorch were the most frequent sightings during that time, before you two went to check it out." Savage said. "And needing to do two separate investigations on separate dates, yet on the same street is rather peculiar. It's either a bunch of prank calls gone too far, or there was really something not meant to be seen from the public. I'd prefer to think of it as option two."

"Look, we understand what you're telling us here and trust me, this was a report in which myself and Judy also found to be rather sketchy during the time." Nick said. "But as we were looking, every animal we checked out wasn't carrying the same type of baggage witnesses claimed to have seen."

"Interesting…" Savage said, while writing the information down in his notes. "Was there anything else you both did during the stakeout, or were you up there all day?"

"Well, we did go inside one of the stores on those streets for a quick bite before we drove back to the station." Judy said. "It was just some dessert store called Jerry's Cheesecake store. Myself and Nick got some cheesecake to go and that was when we took off."

"While you were in the store, did you ever notice anything out of place like say I don't know, animals who acted like they weren't entering the store for the goods?"

 _"_ _Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it, don't say it."_ Nick thought, as was hoping Judy wouldn't confess to their interaction with Chip on that day and raising more questions.

"Well actually…" Judy said.

 _"_ _She's saying it."_ Nick thought, trying not to act frustrated.

"There was this one animal who stood out a bit." Judy said. "We both found it to be somewhat suspicious, especially since he was carrying a similar bag to what witnesses claimed to have seen."

"Did you recognize this animal?" Savage asked.

"No, but I'm positive this animal was a wolf." Judy said. "It was hard to make out anything else about this guy though since he was wearing a bunch of dark clothing on him at the time."

"Since this animal seemed to have been the closest lead you had all day, I'm assuming you confronted him about the bags?" Savage asked.

"Yes, I got Nick to go over to him and see if he could find out what was in the bag." Judy said.

"Why Mr. Wilde?" Savage asked.

"Well, let's just say he's got better social skills than I do when it comes to getting animals to do what you want." Judy replied. "To no surprise, Nick was able to get a peek at what was inside it but…"

"But what?" Savage asked.

"But all I saw inside it was a bunch of food like groceries such as ice cream, berries, carrots, butter, cereal, the usual stuff one would need for their daily supply of food." Nick said. "Overall we called it a bust, drove back to the ZPD and decided to finish up the report from that day for the next day."

"I see." Savage said. "So if someone asked you to recap it, would you say throughout the day there was nothing to be seen?"

"Not that we wanted to, but yes we came up empty pawed with not a bit of suspicion to be seen by us." Judy answered.

"Okay." Savage said, putting his pen down. "Darn pen of mine is running out of ink constantly to write anything else anyway." He said, chuckling.

"I know how that feels, it frustrates me every time that happens with some of the pens I use running out of ink when spending all day finishing up reports, or taking a look at cases for future notes and such." Judy explained.

"Say, while we're on the subject there's something I wanted to ask you Miss Hopps." Savage informed. "You used a carrot pen you owned to record the confession of Bellwether to her crimes for the night howlers case, am I correct?"

"Uh huh, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to do so because as long as we kept her convinced enough to say it, I could've asked her anything about her crimes and she would answer it truthfully." Judy said.

"Genius strategy I must say." Savage complimented. "I've seen recorders before on pens, but I've never seen it on one as well hidden and further sound wave of range as yours was. Especially with the style of it seeming to be similar to a carrot, bad guys would never see it coming."

"Well, some of my brothers are sure the construction wizards of Bunny Burrow." Judy agreed. "They gave it to me as a gift to help with my investigations if the time ever did come when I needed to use it."

"May I see it?" Savage asked.

"S-see it?" Judy asked back.

"Yes, just to see what it looks like." Savage said. "Why, is there a problem I should know about it?"

"W-well her pen was sort of…" Nick said, pausing for a moment.

"It fell out of my pocket one day while I was walking into a store for some lunch." Judy lied. "Then some stupid zebra walked by and stomped on it by accident."

"Oh really?" Savage asked. "Well that must suck, it's not every day you find one of those on the shelves of even a gadgets store. I hope you gave that zebra hell for breaking it."

Judy shrugged. "More or less."

Savage nodded. "Okay, well unless there's anything else you two think you might have to share with from that day or onward, I'd say we're done here for the time being. But just as I say to any officer here, if you find anything even remotely suspicious out on the streets then you know where to go."

"We'll be sure to keep that in mind." Nick said, as he and Judy got up from their chairs and began walking towards the door.

"Especially finding anything about that group going around the streets, according to officers known as 'The Mysterious five'." Savage said.

Nick and Judy instinctively paused themselves as they were about to walk out. "What… what do you mean?" Nick asked.

" _I mean,_ it seems to be known by now that these five are some of the best traders of weapons you can't find _anywhere_ else." Savage stated. "They say they could be anywhere and anytime, but if I were to predict a specific time for them, it'd be just after sunset since it's typically the kind of time when those guys come out from the sounds of it."

"Well, we're off the night shift most of the time, so nothing much we can do about it for the time being." Nick explained. "As of now, myself and Judy's priority in regards to these criminals is to ensure no incidents happen in broad daylight."

"The day shift's case stacks are far less than the stack of cases occurring the night shift if you haven't noticed by now." Savage said.

"Nothing we can do about it, it's not like we _know_ when this stuff is supposed to happen, it just happens." Judy said.

"Yes, well things _just_ happening are leading to downhill after downhill Miss Hopps." Savage said. "I cannot understand the reasoning behind your choices for resuming your positions as patrollers for the day shift. Miss Hopps I recognized how courageous and desperate you were to assist with the night howlers case, and wanted to be a part of it at all costs in which you risked your own job. A job in which you've worked all your life to be a part of, and were willing to throw it all away to be able to take the case. _Now_ however, you seem to act as if you were distracted from your main priorities with something."

"Is there something you're trying to imply out of all this, in which you want to say to me Mr. Savage?" Judy asked, beginning to get a little aggravated.

Savage cocked an eyebrow. "How do you know my last name?"

 _"_ _Oh crap, my instincts took the better of me again."_ Judy immediately thought, after realizing the mistake she just made in front of Savage himself.

 _"_ _Now you've done it Judy."_ Nick said, while trying to keep it together and trying still not lash out.

Savage had already begun to have his own predictions. "You know who I am, don't you?" He asked.

Judy sighed. "Alright fine, I admit I knew you once you came here, but in all honesty it shouldn't be too hard to recognize a face like yours after the cases you've solved in the past."

"… Which one do you know me from?" Savage asked.

"It was in Bunny Burrows a few years back when there were a few major banks in the area I was in being robbed squeaky clean." Judy replied.

 _"_ _The Phillip Palvirax case…"_ Savage thought.

"So needless to say, I recognized your face the second I noticed you walking into the ZPD's Bullpen." Judy said.

"Why haven't you told me about your knowledge of my identity up until now?" Savage asked.

"Well, we didn't want to make a big deal out of it at first." Nick replied. "Not only that, we assumed it was only a matter of time before the press figured out your identity through your most well-known cases you've worked on, that it would've been meaningless to admit it _any_ time after you arrived."

Savage thought about it. "While that may be a high possibility, for future reference I'd like you to tell me what you know _anyways,_ so we don't end up making any mistakes to be made for later. I've had numerous cases before where simple mistakes led to disastrous outcomes such as unwanted deaths, including some of my best friends… Which to me can also lead to too many unwanted funerals."

"Alright fine, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again." Judy said. "I only assumed others would've known sooner or later-"

"Alright that's enough Miss Hopps, please close the door on your way out if you please." Savage requested, as Nick had already opened the door trying to lead Judy out.

"We'll let you know if anything ever comes up while we're on our shift, we promise." Nick said, while closing the door.

 _"...Why would an animal need dark clothing if they were walking in Sahara square?"_ Savage thought, thinking back at their conversation. _"Hmm, I don't know, it could have just been a bad choice of style."_

Savage dropped the pen he had in his paws from the notes he took while laying back on his chair. _"…I had to test it just to make sure, but it didn't think it would really happen."_ He thought. _"The moment I brought up the topic of The Mysterious Five, their entire body expressions changed. Rumor has it, the only three members left are shaped to be a wolf, rabbit and fox… Officer Clawhauser was a ZPD officer of the law, yet it has already been proven he was also one of the members before he went missing. That must mean it's not entirely impossible for a member to be in the ZPD right now."_

Savage then picked up his pen again and began writing a note for suspicions on his mini notebook. He wrote, _"The odds of a rabbit and a fox working together from their natural hate instincts toward one another lowers down the list of possible suspects for each species living in the city… Are these cops really not what they seem?"_

* * *

February 25th, 2018, two weeks later

Brandon was one of the fellows of Zootopia who only wanted to blend in with everybody else. All he ever wanted was to have the perfect life for himself when he moved there and wanted to live his life happily. His dreams were the usual dreams of buying a big mansion, find a sweet and lovable wife to bring home to the folks, have a few grateful enough kits and feel like one of the big guys of the city instead of just your average citizen walking on the streets day by day.

But that never happened.

Once he went on his own feet instead his parents constantly assisting into the big city, he had begun to learn a lot more about the harsh facts of life. Crummy apartment, aggressive neighbors, crappy food stores to buy from nearby, nothing but bills coming out of the mailbox, a job as a telemarketer where you listen all day to animals giving you heck for calling them about stuff they don't need, and they were only the tip of the iceberg. After calling his girlfriend back home to let her know about how he's settling into the new life and hoping she would soon come to live with him, his entire heart sunk to pit bottom after learning about her new and buffer friend which she seems to know more than enough about.

Only a month had gone by for his new life and one night, he's walking on the streets of downtown gazing at the beautiful stars in the sky, reflecting to himself on how there's still beauty for his own eyes to see somewhere out there. Afterward, he asks the big question of the meaning of his existence. He stands there for a few moments aimlessly even with other animals walking by thinking hard about it. In his own moments of despair, he thought of the unthinkable and accepted in his mind that it was his time.

He walks over to a nearby alleyway where he could use the nearest emergency exit to get up to a high enough ground to do the job, only to notice a few other animals in the alleyway seeming to be playing with fire arms, certain weapons which are illegal to possess by any means at all, unless you were with the ZPD in extreme precautions. The animals he saw however, were definitely not the ZPD looking type. The animals approach him and of course ask him what he's doing there, but of course Brandon's not going to tell the truth. So he lies and asks the animals to hook him up with something, but the animals just think he's tripping on some form of side effects with drugs. One of them suggest they take him out here to leave no witnesses, that is until Brandon asked them how they got the guns.

One of them gets a little out of control and begins pointing the gun at his face, but Brandon claims they've got the wrong idea. That's when Brandon begins to have the idea in his head with a new way of making some good money for himself. That way, he would be able to have the kind of life he's always dreamed of having, even if what he's doing to get there is wrong.

"And after hearing a few words from Brandon, the animals decide for it to be best if they take him to see their boss to know if he's truly capable of helping them with their so-called business."

"Wow, you totally made all that up didn't you?" A Jaguar asked.

"I swear to you Sean, at least half of what I told you is true about this guy." A Camel replied.

"Yea, and I'm assuming the main half he told you while you kept him in the storage until I got here, is the fact that he's working for these weapon socio's." Sean said. "You know Joseph, I don't know if you can tell by now, but there's a difference between the truth, and overdramatizing it."

"Well hey remember, you shouldn't leave out the percentage of my supposed over dramatization being actually truthful." Joseph argued. "But then again, you may need to think about the percentage of how possible it is for that to actually be well, _possible_."

"Now we're just going into double digits here, and I didn't come all the way here to do math Joe." Sean said. "Now are we almost to the location, or are you gonna make me kick your tail back home to the boss the next time I hear another one of your little stories?"

"Alright chill, we just got to make another turn here so we're not spotted on any of the street cameras nearby." Joseph explained.

After a few more minutes of careful driving, the two animals drove into a parking lot where a few other animals had already been waiting for a while.

"You boys can keep calm while we're out here." Sean said, as he and Joseph got out of the car while approaching the two pigs and hippo. "This parking lot has been abandoned for years off of a property torn down and not a high enough budget to renew the lot. At daytime, some animals would go here if they wanted to teach their son and/or daughter a few tips about driving, but at night time not a sould is to be seen or even heard in sight. So yea, we'll be okay once we've squeezed out whatever we have to from this Brandon fellow."

Joseph then went to the back of his car, and began dragging the tied up badger towards the other four animals. Sean then bent down in front of Brandon and tore off the piece of tape covering his mouth.

"HEEEEELP, HEEEEEELP, HEEEEEEELP!" Brandon shouted.

"You shout one more time and I'll cut out your tongue." Sean said, pulling a knife out in front of his face. "Now then, let's talk business shall we?"

"I don't know anything!" Brandon exclaimed. "I swear to you, I only joined them about a few months ago for the money, nothing else!"

"A business you're in, sophisticated as it is, it must have a boss running the operation so why don't you just go ahead saving our time as well as yours, and tell us who?" Sean said, laying the knife on the Badger's throat.

"I-I don't know his real name, all I know is that he's a money-shot zebra!" Brandon confessed, with tears rolling off of him in fear.

"Save your whimpering." Sean ordered. "Alright, so you may not know who the boss is but by now you must be aware of his dealers going around the streets to be known as 'The Mysterious Five'. You better have the names of those animals, or I swear I won't hesitate to place this sharp bad boy inside your brain."

"I…." Brandon said, panicking on what to do. "Okay just hear me out. I may not know the actual names of the animals who are making the deals."

" _But?"_ Sean asked, waiting for an answer, as he dug the knife in deeper.

"… But I know how you can get to them without getting caught." Brandon replied. "I can give you the phone number of my boss, and if you can use an animal's cellphone who he's already done business with, then he'll be convinced enough to set up a time and pick up spot. Once you're there, you'll find the animals, along with the guy who would typically drive them to those deals, and that's when you can get your window of opportunity to confront the, so-called Mysterious Five."

"Hmm…" Sean said. "Alright fine, Joseph untie him, and one of you get out a piece of paper and pen so he can write the numbers down."

The four other animals did what Sean said and cut him loose while giving him a pencil and something to write with. One Brandon finished writing the last couple of numbers down on the piece of paper, he gave it over to Sean as he scanned the order of the numbers to make sure it wasn't false.

"You can verify it yourself to any of my other colleagues if you want." Brandon said. "But I swear to you, that's the legit number."

"Oh I believe you, this seems good enough to be true." Sean assured, putting the slip of paper in his front pocket.

"So, can you just let me go home now so I can pretend this never happened?" Brandon pleaded.

"Yea…" Sean said, hesitating while reaching behind his back pocket. "Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but to us it's not an option."

"BANG, BANG, BANG!"

Brandon fell face-flat to the ground with multiple shots to his chest.

"Sean!" Joseph shouted, after seeing him shoot the Badger until he was down on the ground. "What the hell do you think you're doing, you didn't have to kill the poor bastard!"

"He was going to tell his boss what happened to him the moment we let him go." Sean said, justifying his actions. "I don't know about you Joseph, but I'm not the kind of animal who ever leaves loose ends."

"Well great, now we have to take care of the body as well, thanks to you." One of the pigs said.

"No need, there ain't nothing the police will be able to find on us from this, they'll just assume it as 'another tragic animal falling victim to the city's dangerous group of weapon manufacturers'." Sean theorized, as he was opening the door to his car. "Frankie, Bill, you pigs can go back home if you want because this only seems to be a three-mammal job with squeezing out what the dealer's would know if we use the right weaponry. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be retrieving a certain phone to make a call for a reason which brought us all here in the first place."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 46, ...So Neither Can Win**

 **The animals who seemed unbreakable to the lightness left inside of them, will now break.**


	47. So Neither Can Win

**Chapter 46: …So Neither Can Win**

February 26th, 2018, the next night

"I just wanted to let you know that Z has made arrangements with another group for a deal soon." Biggy said, as he was talking to Judy on the phone. "However, he specifically told me to tell you once I phoned you, that you can't take part in it."

 _"_ _What's the point of telling me this if it doesn't affect my life then?"_ Judy asked. _"Besides, I have no interest in being anywhere close to Danny for a while. And Nick at the same time has already got enough on his mind that he'd never feel the end of it if his own friends had begun to turn on each other."_

"Just in case if you were ever planning to do something with those two that night, and you wondered where they were." Biggy replied. "It's a little strange for me though about this arrangement."

 _"_ _Strange how?"_

"Strange as in all of this is too perfect of timing." Biggy replied. "One of our rookies was shot last night, and they found his body this morning in a deserted parking lot around Savannah Central."

 _"_ _I did actually hear about that on the news this morning, that was one of Z's animals?"_

"Mmhm." Biggy replied. "Z's looking into the matter as we speak, as he's theorizing into any related gangs in past or recent events which may have brought our organization into it. Only thing I couldn't understand was the bullets I saw on the television during the report. Since they're the same type we use for numerous of our own weapons, so it's possible the weapons used at the scene were ours."

 _"_ _So what, you're saying a group bought our weapons, but chose a separate animal to kill from Z's crew?"_ Judy asked. _"Biggy I don't know what you're thinking, but that does not make any sense whatsoever."_

"I didn't say that at all, I'm just predicting the _possibility_ that they were our own guns."

 _"_ _Well, it's possible one of your guys could've done it over a dispute they had with the same badger from last night."_

"Z thought about that as well and did do some poking around." Biggy said. "It was considered a dead end to him as most of his workers near the crime scene have an alibi for where they were last night, so he excluded any of his crew as a possibility."

 _"_ _So that's it then, he's not going to continue with his methods of finding animals such as these?"_

"I never said he's not going to, but he's got a lot more on his mind at the moment than a bunch of rookies sniffing where they shouldn't." Biggy said. "In any case, he'll want to think of it as a mugger who found one of our guns on the streets and found it to be a good persuasive tool, if that's what it'll take for him to rest easy at night."

 _"_ _Sometimes I wonder how that animal ever sleeps at night anymore."_ Judy wondered. _"But as you were saying, why can't I take part in the next trade?"_

"What a surprise, you actually sound disappointed after all the chats we had and you talking about how much you hate it." Biggy commented. "The deal will be taking place too close to your apartment, and Z doesn't want to take any chances of a camera or animal spotting your face nearby and immediately recognizing it in a bad way. You see, this time the street is on a certain route we never take very often, which is why Z thinks it's better to play it safe do it somewhere we never have after what happened the other night. But it doesn't matter what way we try to take to your apartment, there's construction going on at the route to get from your place to the deal we're going to, and everywhere else has too many surveillance cameras to avoid."

 _"_ _Is it too hard for me to just walk there then?"_ Judy asked. _"I'm aware of where most of the cameras in this area are by now, shouldn't be too hard to go by even with carrot hoodie you animals gave me put on."_

"If there's one rule Z has when it comes to transportation of any sort, it's to never walk to your location at any cost." Biggy replied. "Of course, he's the kind of animal who never wants to take chances of any sort when it comes to certain aspects that will most likely lead to his downfall, and I'm sure you know what I'm referring to."

 _"_ _That's just stupid though."_

"Listen, take it up with Z whenever he's in his office if you want because as I've said before, I'm just the guy who informs other guys of what to do from the boss." Biggy said. "Is that all you want to know out of me so I can get back to my show now?"

 _"…_ _Well, can I at least phone you during the time just to make sure they're alright doing the deal without me?"_

"If it really does make you feel any better, then by all means." Biggy said. "This isn't the first time you've had to do deals separately though, so why so concerned all of a sudden?"

 _"_ _Well it's just, after hearing about the murder last night and seeing how it was a suspected planned act, I don't know Biggy…"_ Judy said, trying to process her thoughts. _"What if this doesn't turn out the way it's supposed to?"_

"You think the buyers have more on their mind than retrieving guns, is that what you're saying?" Biggy asked. "I wouldn't worry too much about it though, even if I had my own doubts at first. The number Z received for the arrangement was from a buyer we've already sold to before by a group calling themselves 'The Possum'. They don't seem like the kind who'd go for drastic acts."

 _"_ _Alright fine, then I guess we'll talk more about it when the time comes."_ Judy said. _"Speaking of which, when is the deal?"_

"It's happening on the first of March around 11:30 at night, so I suggest you phone me by that time if you're so desperate for ensuring their safety."

 _"_ _I suppose that's what I'll be doing when the time comes then."_ Judy said. _"Until then, I'll see you around."_

"Likewise." Biggy said, hanging up the phone. "Typical rabbits and their nervousness."

"You don't say." Chip said, as he and Biggy were on the couch with some snacks in their paws. "Can't say she's not paranoid enough though, two of her friends have already been killed in the process from that mysterious five group of theirs."

"Yea, but some of the crew have begun to get a little agitated over what happened recently to Brandon." Biggy said. "And not only him, at least a dozen of our animals have died in the past year so some are bound to become a little nervous at hanging around this sort of business."

"Oh, so you don't think similarly?"

"I have my moments." Biggy replied. "But I know things go too far when you hear about police chiefs being blown up, and you know exactly who the cause of it all was."

"Ain't that the truth?" Chip said, as a few more moments went by until he thought of something. "… say Biggy?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you remember that incident we had with the body of the Kudu and your mistake to send it out to the Kafya desert?"

"I'd rather I didn't need to jog memories like those from the past." Biggy requested. "Besides, what's your concern about it all of a sudden?"

"I'm just curious, did you _really_ forget to dump his body somewhere, and where the timing for it would be perfect since Z wouldn't have watched your movement from that day?"

Biggy laughed. "If you really want to, see it for yourself. You know where he's buried so why don't you just dig it up and tell me what you find?"

* * *

March 1st, 2018, the night of the deal

Nick has already gotten suited up for the next deal happening in only a matter of hours. As he was finishing up with putting his required hoodie, he could easily observe the worried face Amber had on her while at the same time trying to hide it. Nick could already tell by now from a mile that she had grown to have feelings for him, but at the same time something told him Amber sensed the same feeling in him too.

"Is there really nothing you can do to avoid the continuous process of weapon trading between you, and that freak of a zebra?" Amber asked, while walking towards nick with her arms crossed. "Because I swear, if you get even the slightest hint of danger again I'll-"

Amber paused herself after Nick had stepped forward, touching his lips with hers for a moment and slightly blushing.

"There, how does that sound for assurance?" Nick asked, smiling back. "You don't need to worry about me all the time now Amber. Whatever dangers you thought I was in before, I'm not."

"That's what I'm afraid of Nick." Amber said. "You say you've got no dangers to fear but look at yourself. All dressed up for a deal in which you shouldn't even be doing to this city in the first place."

"It's not like I've got a choice in the matter Amber, we've been over this before." Nick said. "You _know_ what Z will do if we don't do what he asks. First he'll start with Judy's father, and then he'll come after either you, Judy or Danny. Either way, it's only a matter of time for him to erase another one of us if he finds out again we've been up to no good."

"Well Nick I'm not one to point out the obvious here, but why don't you just kill Z?"

"Amber…" Nick said, surprised. "How could you even think that as an option? I'm not a murderer you know."

"Not yet at least." Amber said. "Besides, I know about your own personal plans to go to Savage and tell him everything to see what his opinion on the matter is. But what you don't seem to grasp the concept of is we're dealing with an animal, who also just happens to be _the animal_ responsible for blowing the chief of police to pieces. This is a dangerous animal and you _know_ he has to be stopped at all costs."

"Doing something the justified way is the _right_ way to go with this Amber, otherwise it just makes us no better than Z." Nick claimed. "I don't ever want to be who Z is Amber, but I want to be the animal who others can look up to right."

"So then I guess working in illegal weapon trading deals is the best way to show those animals just how good of a cop you are, right?" Amber disagreed. "Nick have you ever comprehended yet on how many animals, including your friends and family have died because of him, because of the way he chooses to do things in this city?"

"Amber, _I can't do it,_ simple as that." Nick said. "But I get it, I know how much suffering he's caused to me and what he did to my mother. I want to see nothing more than to see him suffer in the most grueling way possible for his crimes to this city. But killing, Amber, is not going to be an option I would ever recommend."

"What is it that's pulling you from the facts Nick?" Amber asked. "As long as this zebra continues to live, more animals are going to die. One of these days when he feels like sending the call on taking us out, he's not going to hold back on it."

"Well then we should consider ourselves lucky that we've made it this far." Nick said. "Without fast-thinking, I don't know what kind of position we'd be in at the moment, but it definitely wouldn't be here I can tell you that."

"No Nick all you, myself and your friends, are survivors and nothing more." Amber said. "We're just the ones who have stayed silent and not cause a ruckus. But when one of us makes a peep, there's no turning back and you're a wanted animal to Z. You're really still going to work for an animal like that, someone who thinks of you as nothing but pawns in a much bigger game?"

Nick thought about it for a moment, before deciding to ignore her comments for the time being and went out of his apartment, as he walked down the stairs and out the back door where his usual pick-up spot would be for a deal. Amber shook her head, knowing Nick didn't want to believe what she was telling him, even if he knew her comments were true.

It was only just about ten, but Nick got the pattern by now of how Biggy would always pick them up at least an hour or more for spare time in case anything bad were to happen, or if the deal's location were required to be reselected. Only a few minutes after he walked outside, he saw a vague light entering the area as the van Biggy would typically drive rolled in, right in front of him.

The front-right window of the van slid open, showing the driver, Biggy's face. "Hop on into the side, our clients say they're apparently already there ahead of schedule due to later 'tasks'." He said. "And no need to worry, I've picked up your other friend for the trade in case you need some extra assurance of safety."

 _"_ _Other friend?"_ Nick thought, as he slid the side van door open. _"Oh… that friend."_

Nick moved over to the other side of the seat, as Danny had already taken the one in front of him while getting in. Nick and Danny only stared at each other for a single second, and then kept their distance with no eye contact, as well as their own separate atmospheres of pretending they weren't there. It was only best for one another, for the friend each of them knew when Finnick introduced them to one another that there was no harm, and no foul.

"Alright, even with the route we're going to have to take, it'll only be a few minutes for us getting to there as it is relatively close to where we are." Biggy explained. "It's also why Miss Hopps is unable to join us if either of you are wondering.

Nick shrugged, accepting the terms. "I wouldn't consider it a shocker to me honestly." He said. "So just drive us to wherever we're going so we can get this over with already."

"We're actually driving by Flock Street, so yes you can say this will be a fast trip for both of you." Biggy said. "The guns are already in the back as we speak, so since we got everything I'd say buckle up boys." He said, as he moved the gear shift to drive.

The driving part itself wasn't the bad part for Nick, but the animal sitting next to him was the only problem he seemed to have at the moment. Not to mention the fact that Danny had killed Mayor Lionheart on Z's orders. From the start, Nick assumed Danny was on his side and he was the sort of animal you would want to go to if anything bad ever happened to yourself or other.

But now, he felt like the enemy he had been blind to see this entire time. Horrible pasts which were hard to let go of, a main drive leading to some of his own friend's deaths, and betraying the rest of his friends by falling _pet_ to the real enemy. It made not only Nick sick to his knees, but Judy as well. It's what also got Nick thinking into what was going through Judy's head when she kicked Danny in the face after the bombing attack at the ZPD. Maybe she noticed the traits to which Danny has now gotten others to become fully aware of, and didn't want that kind of animal as a friend or ally.

Nevertheless, Danny had his own thoughts on the matter. He likes to think that he's seen through the likely future or possible events to come. He wanted so badly to kill Z after seeing and understanding what he's put his mother through, and eventually leading it to her death. He couldn't even blame Chip for failing to get his mother out of the sewers safely, because he understood who the real enemy was. But because he did, he also understood how the enemy could not be defeated without anyone having to die. If he gave Z's name to the ZPD right this moment, it wouldn't change the fact that animals will still die. He seems to realize he's had enough blood on his paws already, and now he knows in his mind that there's no other way in stopping Z which he can handle taking a part of.

Sometimes suicide popped into his mind so he wouldn't have to be given the option of killing anyone else, or face continuous problems after problems of the same cycle which had been torturing his mind, the moment he was dropped to his knees with a gun to his face nearly two years back. But if he did, then who would willingly protect his brother and father by then? Surely not Judy or Nick as he figured they lost their trust in him ever since Z broke out the news about what he did to Lionheart. So for him as of now, he was at a stalemate.

It wasn't just Danny which Nick was mad with, but even Judy as well. Ever since the explosion occurred at the ZPD, she's acted for nothing but her own terms. If Nick asked to help her, or even if he asked her to help _him,_ nothing would ever change her mind than saying the word _no._ he predicted she thought at one point it would be best not to cause any form of disruption until further notice. But if she really did think that way, then it's almost as if she's no better than Danny.

"We're just around the corner, zip up and activate your voice changers." Biggy said.

Nick and Danny did what Biggy ordered and zipped up their hoodies high enough to cover their faces, and wrapped the collars around their necks while activating the voice changer on them. A few moments later, Biggy pulled into an alleyway and put the van to a halt.

 **"** **Where's the buyer?"** Danny asked with his voice changer turned on.

"He or she's just up ahead to your next right." Biggy said. "As I always say to you guys, give them the bags, count the m-"

 **"** **Money just to be sure it's all there and go your separate ways, we get it Biggy."** Nick said, assuring him of knowing what to do by repeating the steps.

"Alright, then go." Biggy said. "I'm sure I'll be receiving a call for me soon from a certain mammal so, it'd make my day if you got out of there sooner to make it easier on all of us."

Nick and Danny then got out of the van, walked over to the back side of it and retrieved the bags of weapons for the deal. After double checking all the weapons were there and in order, they had begun to walk further into the alleyway until their next right turn. The mood set on this alleyway, however, seemed a little too odd from the surroundings. Unlike all the other deals they've had to do over the course of time, this setting seemed a little _too_ pleasant.

Once they got close enough, they made the right turn only to notice a Jaguar waiting casually on the other side alone. The footsteps Danny and Nick were making caught the Jaguar's attention, turning his head to face the animals with the pawpsicle and the headset on the front of their hoodies.

"Ah, I was wondering how long it'd take you to get here when I phoned." The Jaguar said. "And I have to say, you didn't disappoint."

Danny and Nick were not in the mood to chat about timing. **"We've got your weapons, now where's the money?"** Nick asked.

"It's in one of the vans I got parked out back of the building we're behind." The Jaguar explained. "But before I go get it, I need to make sure the weapons are all there so I can verify them for our cost."

 **"** **This wasn't the same basic routine you had us do with your group last time, why the sudden change?"** Nick asked, curious.

"Oh yea, that was Tom who organized the thing and talked with you last time." The Jaguar answered. "He's more of a laid back kind of guy and isn't one to be concerned with safety regards. Me on the other paw, I actually care about that stuff in most cases."

Nick now started to have a sick feeling in his stomach fast into the process of the deal after what the Jaguar had just told him. **"That's impossible."** He said.

The turned his head slightly as he cocked and eyebrow in surprise. "I beg your pardon?" He asked.

 **"** **You are from The Possum gang, correct?"** Danny asked, now curious to know what Nick was suspicious of.

"Of course, I'm crossing my heart here gentlemammals." The Jaguar claimed.

 **"** **And you're positive the animals you just referred to from the last deal your group did were the actual animals?"** Nick asked.

"To my knowledge of the group, yes I'm pretty positive of this." The Jaguar replied.

 **"…** **You said we were talking with a male animal named Tom huh?"** Nick questioned.

"Your point being?" The Jaguar asked back, beginning to get a little agitated.

 **"** **My point being is that the animal we talked out the trade with was** _ **female**_ **."** Nick stated.

* * *

 _"_ _Is everything going okay up there?"_ Judy asked, as Biggy was chatting with her on the phone while still waiting in his van for the deal to be finished with.

"Didn't think you would actually remember to call, especially early from the time I told you the deal would begin." Biggy commented. "Well, from here it doesn't sound like guns are blazing so I'm sure it's just fine."

 _"_ _Are you sure you can't just go in there just to be sure?"_ Judy requested. _"Because from the sounds of it, you're still in the van."_

"I can't interrupt a deal Judy, I thought you'd know that by now." Biggy said. "If I go in to check on then right now in the process of the exchange, questions will begin to rise up from the buyer's end and before you know it, unnecessary enemies would soon come into the situation currently."

 _"_ _Here's an idea then, how about you go before the deal happens?"_ Judy suggested, trying to point out the obvious.

Biggy laughed. "Z doesn't pay me enough to risk my own tail for a bunch of animals who can't help but cause trouble all the time. Besides, even if I _was_ stupid enough to go along, there would be nobody protecting the method of transportation, otherwise known as my van. Sure there's cases for things such as animals unlocking the doors with a picklock, getting into your vehicle and finding out about information not meant to be seen, as well as bringing that to a case of blackmail or safety hazard to my fellow colleagues. But it's my personal vehicle, and like any other mammal who _does care_ , I will also be straight-up furious if someone stole my stuff."

 _"_ _You're saying Z looks into the buyers before he agrees to set up the deals with them, that's what I heard."_ Judy stated. _"If that's true then why are you so concerned about someone messing with your truck due to yourself not accompanying it?"_

"Uh, because for the second time now, it's my truck and I decide whether or not I should leave it unoccupied." Biggy shot back. "Besides, you should consider yourself lucky I'm on your side at the moment, otherwise this conversation would've been over, five seconds after I picked up the phone."

 _"_ _You sound like a second grader whining about his lunch and hoping he gets what he wants, you know that?"_

Biggy rolled his eyes in ignorance. "Whatever floats your boat sweetie."

" _CLINK, CLINK, CLINK..."_

Suddenly, the sounds of a metal object dropping to the ground nearby immediately caught Biggy's attention. Since the sound came from behind his van, he assumed Nick and Danny had to have knocked over a trash can while coming back from the deal. However, an entire couple minutes went by and the sound of his side door sliding open were never heard.

 _"_ _It's not that windy out today…"_ Biggy thought, feeling a little pressure on himself at the moment.

 _"_ _Biggy, are you still there?"_ Judy asked.

"Give me a second Judy." Biggy said, while putting the phone on the other front seat.

He then rolled up his window on both ends checking to see if anybody was out there. He didn't feel safe going out of his van, not with the atmosphere he was feeling at the moment. He couldn't see anything out by the left window, so he hopped over to the right side front seat just to be sure. After a moment of silence and hearing nothing out of the ordinary nearby, he concluded his own predictions of the surprise wind blowing a few things over. He then rolled the windows back up and grabbed his phone which he had left on the seat.

"Sorry about that, must have been my senses over reacting again to strange metal kind 'clings'." Biggy said, while sitting back down in the driver's seat. "So as I was saying and now that you mention transportation to me since I've already told Chip, I thought it would be time to inform you and your friends about-"

Biggy paused himself as his eyes opened wide while dropping the phone in shock. Right in front of him was an animal with a gun pointed right towards his face. He tried to react as fast as he could by pushing the gearshift to drive. But by the time he did so, it was already too late.

"BANG!"

Biggy was shot point-blank in the head through his windshield, as his head fell straight onto the horn of his van.

 _ **"**_ _ **BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…."**_ Went the horn.

" _Biggy, what was that?"_ Judy asked, but with no response. _"Biggy what's that honking sound? Biggy! BIGGY!"_

* * *

Nick and Danny paused themselves and turned their heads to the outside of the alleyway, after hearing a continuous honking sound coming from what seemed to be Biggy's van.

 **"** **What the hell is that?"** Danny wondered. **"Is that one of your guys with the van?"**

The Jaguar shrugged. "I have no idea, I mean I've been with you two the entire time so I'm just as curious as you are."

 _"_ _Now he's just sound like he's trying to pull our chains."_ Nick thought. **"You stay with him and keep an eye on him too, I'm going to go check it out."** He said, beginning to walk while he and Danny were facing the other direction.

"Oh I don't think that's such a good idea." The jaguar said.

"BANG!"

It was an instant. He regretted having his back turned against the Jaguar the moment he heard the shot. Nick's entire body was now filled with fear, as he watched Danny slowly fall to the ground with a bullet hole from his hoodie right on his head. After seeing him fall face-flat to the ground, in rage he immediately turned his head and prepared to take his gun out from his back, but not before the Jaguar had already pointed his sights at Nick.

 _"Ah, ah, ah."_ The Jaguar said shaking his head, with his gun still locked onto Nick. "I suggest you drop that gun now, before I drop _you_ to the ground just like him."

Nick first thought he could react faster than the Jaguar to shoot, but seeing as how he was able to shoot Danny in the head from a long range, he knew the Jaguar's chances were better. Angrily, Nick dropped his gun knowing that he would regret doing so soon.

The Jaguar then took out radio from behind his back and began talking into it. "I've got one of the dealers down where I am, and the other one I've got right on my sights at the moment." He said. "Joseph, how are things with the driver?"

 _"_ _Dealt with."_ Joseph replied on the other end.

"What about you Charlie, do you seeing anything on the roof?" The Jaguar said.

 _"_ _Nothing yet, the street's a total ghost town from what I can see."_ Charlie replied on the other end.

"You see?" The Jaguar said. "I told you this would only need to be a three-mammal job. Now come to where I am, it's time we had a discussion with a member of the _famous mysterious five."_

Nick was unable to say a word. For once in his life, he was fully confident in the fact that his life was about to come to and end. Not one thing could cross his mind about saving himself now. One move from him and only blackness would be what there is to come for him. He soon saw two more animals, a camel and a hippo emerge from the alleyway he was in walking towards where he was forced to stay still.

"Of course you'd keep the _small_ one alive Sean." Charlie said, chuckling as he noticed the body of Danny on the ground.

"The big animals have always been the biggest problems, so it's better if we get the smaller one instead to talk." Sean explained. "First things first, how about one of you remove the mammal's hoodie and collar so we can talk face to face. And for the love of god, will somebody get the driver's head off the horn before we wake up the entire city?"

Joseph decided to go over and do the honors of unzipping Nick's hoodie, while Charlie went to stop the honking sound. He kicked Nick to his knees, ripped off the collar strapped from his neck, took the zipper from the top of Nick's hoodie and unzipped it. Once all three mammals took a good look at his face, all three of them turned their faces immediately to stunned ones. All three mammals were looking at each other wondering how this was even possible to be.

" _You?"_ Sean asked silently.

Nick wasn't showing any fear at all for having revealed who he really was behind the mask finally after so long. He figured in his final moments, he'd go out with dignity rather that fearing and living up the hope on him coming out alive from this.

" _Heh…"_ Sean said, giggling. "Ah hah… ha, ha, ha, hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" He shrieked, laughing out loud. " _You_? The fox cop guy who was all over the news with that night howlers incident? You've got to be kidding me! I mean _all_ this time, you were really just another slum on the streets working as a spy for your boss? Oh man, this is too good right now!"

Nick looked up at Sean in disgust. _"Surprise."_ He said deeply in agitation. "I know what you're about to do, so how about you stop wasting both our time and shoot me for whatever it is you think I've done to you animals."

 _"_ _Ooooh,_ not so fast there cowboy." Sean said. "It's not that you're wrong about what we're going to do to you, but you're missing a crucial step to it. We need to know who your boss is."

Nick looked up at him unamused. "Even if I told you, you're going to shoot me anyways so what's the point?"

 _"_ _Click."_ Went Sean's gun, as he took the safety off of it.

 _"The point is,_ we'll just have to make things a little more painful for you then." Sean answered.

Nick sighed. "You know what, forget I even asked that. He's not even my boss, he's an animal who's caused me nothing but pain and suffering for the past year or more, so why should I even give a damn about him? I've been wanting to kill him for too long to remember now, not just because of the fact he shot my mother, but because he's made me feel _weak._ Sometimes I ask myself why I haven't ever just went to his house one day and do what I've always been meaning to do? I've wanted to _so bad_ many times now, but I couldn't. He's destroyed my life, and that weakness is what forced me to accept the facts. Facts I wish could never, _ever_ be the case."

Sean nodded to himself from Nick's response. "So basically you hate him is what you're saying?"

"You sure are a mood killer as well." Nick said.

"Yea well I didn't come to hear a sympathy speech, even if it is from someone like yourself." Sean said. "All I want out of you, is a _name."_

Nick shook his head out of no confidence left inside of him to understand from others of what he's trying to say. " _Zamiel Stripes,_ happy?" He asked with a fake smile.

Sean smiled. " _Very."_ He said.

"So what now?" Nick asked.

Sean sighed, as he kneeled back up from his position of talking to Nick. " _Now,_ I'm going to get the car ready considering we've got some new business to attend to." He explained. "I'm also going to make a few calls to see if we can pinpoint his address, and the rest will speak for itself."

"What do we do about the fox Sean?" Joseph asked.

"Just make it quick, we don't want him telling others what he told us after all, just like that badger we took care of." Sean replied.

Joseph sighed. "Okay…" He said, as he walked right behind Nick and took a gun out from his pocket. He then pulled the top back to make sure it was loaded, and pointed it right in front of the back of Nick's head.

As Nick knew his time was about to come in a few seconds, he looked up at the sky filled with stars in the air one last time. As his entire life was flashing before his very eyes, he closed them out of calmness and waited for it to finally be all over.

"BANG!"

This was it. This was the moment he hoped wouldn't come for a much longer span of time than now. As he slowly opened his eyes, he thought at first he'd be seeing a bright light, probably with his mother or even Finnick, Clawhauser or Danny to be seen.

But what he saw was something he never imagined happening, even the slightest. He was still right where he was, and still on his knees with a gun put on him. But what he saw in front of him shocked him the most. The small figure of a black hooded mammal with a carrot on their face, holding a gun with smoke coming out of it.

 _"It's her_ _."_ Nick thought, totally speechless at the moment as time had begun to move normally for him again.

 _"_ _GAUUUGHH!"_ Joseph yelled while coughing up blood, as he dropped to his knees with a shot straight through the chest.

"WHAT IN THE HELL?!" Sean shouted, as he turned around to see where the shot came from, but with no animal in sight. He then took the gun back out of his pocket and pointed it to the turning sides of the alleyway while carefully walking towards it. "DAMN IT, Charlie keep an eye on the fox and make sure he doesn't move an inch, I'm pretty sure whoever's here will be coming for him."

"Got it." Charlie said, taking out his own gun and keeping it locked on Nick for the time being.

Sean presumed the first place the hooded mammal would go to would be the van to see what happened to the driver. He moved silently, but speeding fast enough to get to the vehicle before the animal could notice. He checked both on top and under the van to see if they were hiding, but nothing. He then slid the side door open to see if anything else living was inside it, but nothing could be found.

He slid the door shut, but still unsure of where the animal could have gone. _"There was nothing on the right side to hide from and too far of a run to turn from the time I looked, and if it's the same length with the left side and the van was empty then that must mean…"_ He thought.

Just then, a small voice was heard from right behind him.

" _What the…"_ The mammal muttered.

"BANG, BANG!"

Sean instinctively turned around and fired two shots into the mammal. One at his chest and the other to his head, instantly taking his life. Sean sped over to take a closer look at who the mammal was, but it didn't seem to be someone he recognized.

 _"_ _It's just some stupid otter."_ Sean mumbled to himself. _"But wait, if this was the shooter, then where's his gun?"_ He wondered, while searching his body.

 _"_ _BANG!"_

As if he had more than enough surprises for one day, Sean heard the sound of another shot being fired in the same area Charlie was with the fox. _"Damn it Charlie, I thought I told you not to fire at the fox yet!"_ He thought. Sean ran back over to where Charlie was, but once he got there, what he saw was completely opposite of what he thought he'd be seeing, and now there was not enough time to react.

"BANG!"

"AAAAHOOOWW!" Sean yelled, as he dropped to the ground after being shot in the leg with his gun slipping out of his paws. Nick then ran over to the Jaguar and picked up his gun to make sure he wouldn't be armed while at the disadvantage.

The hooded animal behind Nick then slowly walked toward Sean with the gun in their paws. Sean looked back and saw Charlie already down on his back with a straight shot to the head as well. In a desperate attempt to flee, he began crawling away from them, but was stopped after the mammal had stepped on his injured leg.

 **"I wouldn't try anything else if I were you."** The hooded mammal said, also having a voice changing collar put on them.

 _"Bite me."_ Sean shot back, still groaning from the wound on his leg.

 **"** **You know even for my size, you still might want to look higher than the street."** The mammal said, as they were pointing to the roofs.

 _"_ _Let me see your face…"_ Sean growled.

The mammal thought about if for a moment. **"…If you feel that you need me to so desperately, you already saw my partner's face after all."** The mammal replied, as they unlocked the collar from their neck and unzipped the hoodie.

"….How did you know where we'd be, we double check the perimeter for any more of your crew!" Sean claimed.

"The driver you animals shot out there was on a phone call with me." Judy said. "That's when I heard the loud sound of a horn going off, so I knew it could only mean one thing. And of course since that thing seemed like it was about to happen, neither the ZPD nor even Z's crew would be able to make it on time if I called them. I guess it's just bad luck you three happened to have done a deal just around the corner from where I live. It was a no brainer getting here with my speed."

"Who the hell do you two think you are from doing this?" Sean asked, while continuing to put pressure on his wound. "Both of you acted like a symbol of hope to this city…. What are you doing selling stuff to _kill_ animals?!"

"Long story short, we didn't have a choice." Judy replied. "But you know, the scary part about it is the fact that _I_ had the ability to kill animals. Hell, I could've done what I just did to any of his animals if I had the angle…. But I just couldn't, only because it felt like it was _wrong_ , and I couldn't ever handle the pressure of taking an animal's life."

Sean laughed. "You're a cop who can't handle the pressure of taking a life, even if you knew what you'd possibly have to do one day if it came down to it?"

Judy sighed. "I suppose I am."

"But not anymore…" Sean said. "You've just taken two of them, my own friends!"

"You say it like _you're_ the saint out of all this!" Nick shouted. "You murdered our driver, an animal who we thought could've been helpful to us to take down Z, and _you_ yourself murdered one of my own friends in front of me as well!"

"Not now Nick, later." Judy said, putting her paw on his shoulder. "You know for a fact, we don't have to kill you. We can let you go right now, and if you can tell the ZPD the boss's name, which I assume Nick has already given you, then we can put a stop to him once and for all. I'm guessing it's what you animals came here to do all along. The question I'm still boggled on it, _why us?"_

Sean shook his head, knowing that he had to tell them the truth. "You animals were responsible for the deaths of at least half a dozen animals from our crew. You sold the weapons to a street gang known as 'The Possum', and they used those weapons on us before we took out every single one of them. After a little bit of some snooping around, we found one of the crew members who worked for him, but he didn't know his name."

 _"_ _The Badger Biggy mentioned and the one we saw on the news, that was because of these guys?"_ Nick thought.

"What he did know however was the number for setting up trades with his dealing animals, and hopefully they would know his name." Sean continued. "And the rest… well the rest is history."

"So basically this was all just an act of vengeance?" Judy asked, while shaking her head at the thought of it. "Have you ever heard of the saying, 'evil or not, revenge affects both sides so neither can win'?"

"And the fact that you took nearly as many lives as your crew lost is supposed to make things all better for you animals?" Nick asked, irritated.

"Well, in a money's making point of view, I suppose it was." Sean replied.

"That's enough." Judy said, pointing her gun at Sean's head. "Now are you going to help us, or should we just let the ZPD get to you anyway?"

"….I'm _not_ going back to prison rabbit." Sean said. "There's no way I can handle it inside there one more day…. Let's face it, there's no way the cops can't suspect me after this and can lower my sentence."

"So then what are you implying we do?" Judy asked.

Sean laid on the ground in silence for a few moments before responding. "…. Screw it." He said, as he immediately reached for his ankle and pulled out a hidden small pistol about to aim it at Judy.

"BANG!"

But before he could do it, Nick had already used his own gun and was able to shoot him straight through his neck before he could pull the trigger.

 _"_ _Jesus…."_ Judy murmured after witnessing Nick shoot him suddenly, and watching his body twitch a little after soon becoming still. She knew it was the right call from what he was about to do, but now they had no one to tell the ZPD about Z. But just then, an idea occurred in her head.

Nick looked around to make sure nobody else was in sight, as he turned back towards Judy. "So now what are we supposed to do?"

"Umm…." Judy said, thinking about it. "Well before we can discuss anything else, we have to get out of here, _now."_

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 47, Identical Goals**


	48. Identical Goals

**Chapter 47: Identical Goals**

June 14th, 2016, nearly 2 years earlier.

"You are the biggest idiot in the entire world, you know that?" Chip said, as he and Biggy were driving in their van to dig a corpse into the ground.

"You know, this stuff happens to animals delivering stuff to the morgue more than you think." Biggy replied.

"Well at least they remember and don't have to be reminded of putting away a fricking _body!"_ Chip said, freaking out a little. "Could you just _imagine_ the face Z would have if he found out you forgot to dispose this animal's body?"

"Relax, it's not like he or his crew ever cares about wondering what's inside any of our vans." Biggy said. "I would actually call that the business's weakness, considering how many times they forget to look inside of a van when necessary. How do you think the mammals before the five Z brought in for deals about a month back died?"

"Oh…" Chip said. "Well either way, we have to take care of that Kudu's body because I'd rather we got onto our shift at Rainforest District finished sooner, rather than having to stay up all night watching the raindrops fall on the side windows."

"You can quit your yappering Simon, we're almost there." Biggy said, as he pulled his van over to the side of the deserted street. "This place has been deserted ever since the bridge collapse here around ten years ago. It's out of the city, and only a few hikers would typically come around here, so why would they ever think about looking up a hill with simply a few normal leaves at a certain spot?"

Chip chuckled. "If you think it's going to work, then I'm all eyes and ears Bill."

"I'll get the shovels and a bag from the back, while you take a few leafs from some nearby tree and use the bag to put them is." Biggy ordered. "Once we're ready, we'll bring the body to the hole once we've dug it up."

"Oh _hell_ no, you're carrying the body there yourself."

"Chip, Kudu's are a little heavier to carry than you might think, not that I'm saying from experience but still."

"It's not that, do you…" Chip said, hesitating. "Do you realize how rotten it must be, as well as its stench being in there for so long?"

Biggy gave Chip an unimpressed look. "Oh for the love of god Chip, quit acting like a whiner and just do what you're told. you'll make lots of more friends in Z's crew that way, just as a tip."

"You can give me all the tips you want, but I'm not doing it."

"Yes you are."

"No I am not."

 _"_ _Yes you are."_

"NO I AM NOT!" Chip shouted. "Rotten corpses are where I cross the line Biggy, Z's _definitely_ not paying me enough to do that!"

"Is this the part where I'm going to have to force you to help me now?"

Chip rolled his eyes in aggravation. "You owe me _big time_ after this." He said.

"I'll write it as a note."

The two animals then got out of the van and went to work. Considering where they were was close to an ocean, it was hard for Chip to find a nearby tree to get leafs out of. Biggy meanwhile got the shovels out of the back of his van, and brought it over to a decent enough spot where he assumed nobody would be able to walk near, even if going off the right track. A few minutes later, Chip came back with a bag full of leafs and the two had begun to dig where Biggy wanted to.

Around ten minutes had gone by until Biggy assumed the hole was big enough. "Alright, let's go fetch him." He said.

As Biggy and Chip were walking back to the van to retrieve the body, Chip was still in the kind of mood of comfortableness being less important than his own dignity of what he was about to do. Once Biggy had opened up the slide door to his storage compartment under the seat, Chip immediately pulled himself back.

" _Oh god…"_ He mumbled, as he turned away while falling down to his knees and seeing his dinner come out an unexpected place.

 _"_ _Rookies…"_ Biggy thought, shaking his head. "Get a grip Chip, you're the one who wanted to get this over with quick."

"How do you always put me in situations like this?"

"I guess it's just your luck."

As much of a gruesome sight as it was to Chip, he and Biggy still managed to squeeze the Kudu out of the compartment, as they carried him over to the hole while at the same time ensuring no parts of him ever fell off. Once they put him in the hole, Chip let out an exhale of relief.

"Now there's a sight I'm never going to be able to get out of my head…" Chip said.

Biggy however, felt like this was the perfect time to deal with emergency materials in case he needed them for later. For a start, he took out his phone, a slip of paper and began writing down numbers on it.

"Uh, what do you think you're doing?" Chip asked.

"I'm writing down the coordinates to where we put the body." Biggy replied.

 _"_ _What?"_ Chip wondered. "Why on earth would you be wanting to do that? I thought it'd be better to make sure we _do_ forget about ever coming back here."

"Well, you may be right on that one." Biggy said. "But Z will most likely one day be wanting to know where I put the body, so I think it would be better if I gave him the coordinates to it just in case if he wanted to see it for himself. After all, he would be pretty pissed if he fund out we gave him coordinates to a body which possibly wasn't even the Kudu's."

"What makes you think Z will even care?"

"I don't know, but then again neither do you." Biggy stated. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's also a bag I want to get from my van to bring here as well. It will only be a few more minutes, in fact you can probably go back to the van and wait for me if you want."

"What do you need the bag for?"

"Just…" Biggy said, hesitating. "Just some other stuff from that night that would be better off disposed of, it's nothing you need to worry about."

Chip rolled his eyes, as he began to walk back. "If it means not having to stand here looking at _that_ mess of a corpse all day, then I could care less about what you're doing."

* * *

March 2nd, 2018, present day

There was an entire crowd being attracted to witness the horrible scene. Dozens of officers had to stay there just to make sure nobody but themselves could get through all the caution tape. To most officers, this was the most gruesome crime scene they had ever taken part of in their entire careers as officers. One of the janitors for a building on the same street found out about the scene when he was doing his usual trash run behind the building in the alleyway at morning.

Eventually, the rabbit in the suit all officers were waiting for had finally come to investigate. He walked out of his car, while a few officers escorted him into the scene from the large group of animals in his way. Some officers were quite surprised to see how focused he still seemed, even after seeing him look at the scene from entering through the caution tape.

"Alright, what have we got?" Savage asked, while walking into the crime scene with chief Mchorn.

"We've got a total of six casualties overall." Mchorn replied. "In front of the van, there's a polar bear in the van with a shot to the head, and an otter besides it with one shot to the stomach and a shot to the head. Moving up to the right here, we have a wolf and a hippo also with shots to the head, a camel with a chest shot, and finally a jaguar with one shot to the leg and another shot to the neck soon dying of blood loss."

"Any identification on the animals yet?" Savage asked, as he put on some nitrile gloves on his paws.

"Only from the animals by the van since we saw from their wallets, but strangely all the animal's cell phones are gone." Mchorn answered.

"It's not strange at all, could've been something on there, which whoever committed this didn't want us to see." Savage predicted. "I also hear, one of the Mysterious Five animals seemed to have become a victim to this."

"Yep, it was the wolf." Mchorn stated. "Rumors on the streets to be known of from the ZPD _did_ describe one of the remaining three of the group to be using an artistic picture of a headset on one of the hoodies."

"Alright, then excluding the unknown dead wolf, what do you know about the remaining two?"

"We can only assume right now, their species are a fox and a rabbit, judging from their particular size and shape of paws they had on them seen from animals who knew some of the buyers for them." Mchorn explained. "The fox guy had a pawpsicle drawing on their hoodie, and the rabbit had a carrot put on theirs."

"Speaking of which, is there a reason there's no sign of Officer Hopps and Wilde anywhere to be seen?"

"Hopps and Wilde?" Mchorn wondered. "They should be on their patrol assignment through Sahara Square by now after I saw them at bullpen earlier, why?"

Savage shrugged. "No reason, just trying to see if we can get all the help we need at the moment. It's a pretty large crime scene to be witnessing to many citizens of the city after all, almost as crowded as it seemed during the explosion at the ZPD back in January."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, no, just might get a few citizens rallied up about this is all." Savage answered, walking towards the two bodies by the van as Mchorn followed. "You might not see it in their eyes Mchorn, but they're starting to get fed up with bodies appearing almost everywhere in the city, including the one and only mayor's office."

"Why does that matter?"

"To them it means they think you're not doing your job right." Savage said, examining the two bodies. "Nobody in this city is ready to die yet, they think they've got too much to live for. That's exactly the thought which is keeping them up at night, and in order to relief themselves from it they're going to need to blame somebody. Sadly for your precinct, you're the first ones they'd go to."

"But you don't believe in any of it, do you?"

"I never said I didn't." Savage said. "In my mind, maybe you're all not looking closely enough at what's in front of you all the entire time."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Mr. Mchorn, have you ever considered the fact that one of your officers may be acting as a spy towards the work you've been doing on this case so far?"

"Excuse me?" Mchorn asked, getting a little angered. "Mr. Savage, I don't know who you think you are or how much you know about our precinct here in the centre of Zootopia, but severe claims such as those in which you're putting on my shoulder is not something I can let slide as if it's true."

"You looking for proof?" Savage asked, in response to Mchorn. "Fine, take every single night of a no show with the crew of weapon dealers for example. Not _one_ case has ever shown up from what I've read that there has been a capture or witness during the patrol with officers at night time. Now either whoever this criminal boss is has a super computer brain, or somebody from your station is deliberately sabotaging where all your animals patrol by giving away their locations, then they leak all the information to the weapon manufacturers so they know where to, and where not to go."

"That is ridiculous, my officer wear the badges of _trust, loyalty,_ and _integrity_ to this city and swore and oath that they would specifically promise to meet up to those standards for the city." Mchorn said, disagreeing. "They have their trust in myself, and I have my trust in themselves."

"Trust can surely be a strong word to me Mr. Mchorn, keep that in mind." Savage said. "And I understand my point could be false at the same time, but I don't want you to disregard the possibility, not until we're a hundred percent sure in every one of your officers."

Mchorn thought about it. "…For the time being."

Savage continued to examine the corpses until he walked back out of the van while carrying a plastic bag. Inside it seemed to be only a few mere hair samples, but not the same colour of the animal currently inside the van.

"Give this to the forensics team." He ordered one of the nearby officers. "Have them identify it to see if we have a match on an animal."

"Where did you find these samples?" The officer asked.

"In the storage compartment at the back of the van." Savage replied. "When it comes to these sort of animals, who knows what sort of _situations_ they've been up to. Now then, let's take a look at the rest of the animals." He said, walking over to them.

To Savage, it was like every animal here had a different scenario to what happened to them. He took a closer look at the trajectory of the bullets going through each animal, and it undoubtedly proved his prediction. After taking a close look at each animal on the ground, he took out his little notebook and began to write scribbles about what the scenario was and how it ended. But while he was writing, he had begun to hear sudden shrieks and cries coming from the audience.

"Let me through, LET ME THROUGH!" A female voice shouted. It turned out to be an otter shouting, as she had come up through the front of the caution tape, only to see something she'll never be able to forget for the rest of her life.

"Anderson, find out who that otter is and make sure she doesn't cause too much of a commotion." Savage ordered from a nearby polar bear officer.

"You got it." Anderson replied, walking over to the crowd.

" _Oh my god…."_ The otter said silently, falling to her knees. "THAT'S MY HUSBAND! THAT'S MY BLOODY HUSBAND ON THE FLOOR!" She shouted, while running towards the otter's body.

"Ma'am, MA'AM!" Anderson called out to her, trying to pull her away from the crime scene and to his patrol car. "This is a crime scene, you're not supposed to be in here!"

"YOU PROMISED!" The female otter screamed at the body, while Anderson was still trying to get her paws of the body without moving it too much. "You promised you'd come and see Carlton's soccer game…. YOU PROMISED!"

"I need some assistance over here!" Anderson hollered, as a ram officer came by to assist him with moving her out of the scene.

"LET GO OF ME, THAT'S MY HUSBAND!" The female otter continued to shout at the officers, as they finally got a hold of her paws while dragging her away from the scene. "I CAN'T LEAVE EMITT THERE, I CAN'T!"

"Nice job of your animals _handling_ the situation Mchorn." Savage said sarcastically.

"Hey, unlike you, we don't have as much experience of dealing with a relative's loss." Mchorn said in defense.

"Well your officers are precinct _one_ officers, so I expect them to understand the knowledge and skills as of now for handling mammals such as that otter, who are out of control." Savage suggested. "As my director always says to us before we're given an assignment, 'when you're doing a job, make sure you're doing it right.' Not as if anyone suddenly decided to try a half-tailed job only because they were too lazy too."

"I've had enough of your comments towards my officers for one day agent Hopkins." Mchorn pointed out. "Now can you please tell me what you've been writing down, instead of looking like a kit doing scribbles at recess time?"

Savage glared at him in return for his comments. "We'll talk more later, mammal to mammal about the signs of respect given towards one another."

" _For now,_ what did you find?"

"Hmm, well nothing but how it most likely happened, the animals who got away sure did make sure they didn't leave anything to track back to them at least." Savage explained. "The first animal to die was most likely the driver, especially since his death seemed to have been the smoothest out of the rest. If the mysterious five did in fact take place in this deal suspected to have gone wrong, then I'm guessing the other animals we found with a gun next to them had to take the wolf out soon after, to deal with less trouble for how much they brought with them to act dangerous."

"You're miscounting the otter we found back at the van."

"That otter's death was rather sloppy and panicked." Savage assumed. "Look at the first two victims with both clean shots to the head, and the suddenly an otter with a shot to the stomach first, and then the head? There would've been no need to shoot him in the stomach if it wasn't rushed. But moving along, we got the two other animals with guns on them, the camel and the hippo."

"The camel was shot in the chest however, not the head this time." Mchorn said.

"Yes, but you also need to take into consideration that aside from the driver and the mysterious five wolf member, the only ones with guns close to them had to have been the attackers. So after going through what happened to the side of the weapons manufacturers, which just leaves the two remaining members who seemed to have ditched this party a _long_ time ago."

"What, you think the last two mysterious five members were the overall cause of the other three victim's deaths?" Mchorn asked. "To our knowledge and speculation of their movements, not a single death has ever been held responsible from the mysterious five before."

"So what then, you think these animals all of a sudden just called for backup while they were in the middle of a hostage situation?" Savage questioned. "There's a first time for everything Mchorn."

"Nevertheless, it meant they were three against two." Mchorn said. "Against killers with live rounds, their best chance to get the advantage would've had to been a surprise attack."

"And you're most likely correct on that statement." Savage agreed. "Notice how all the bodies are clumped into one big pile when turning to this right. They weren't near a trash can, dumpster, corners of the wall, or even turning points for that matter…. Now that I think about it, it's possible there were only two of the mysterious five dealers, and one could've been on standby."

"I seriously doubt so." Mchorn said. "If the third animal was on standby, then he or she would've been shot at the moment the polar bear was killed as well. Well, at least if what you're thinking about a surprise attack is true."

"The third animal could've hid up high on the roofs." Savage suggested. "Judging from the angle of the bullet trajectory to the entrance with the hippo back there, there's no doubt they were also on the roof."

"But we're looking at a sharpshooter here then." Mchorn assumed. "If that animal could've been able to take out both a hippo and a jaguar, then why didn't they just do so from the start?"

Savage thought about it for a moment, as he took another quick examination of the alleyway. "….Cellphones."

"Cellphones, what do you means cell-"

"You said there was no piece of cellphones to be found at the scene." Savage said. "But when I looked at that polar bear's body, I took a closer look at the pool of blood on the floor. It had mostly been dried up over the course of time, but I also noticed a vague but familiar looking shape of a rectangle stained into the blood…. I should've realized sooner that the cellphones were here and someone _purposely_ took them to avoid any further evidence."

"Okay, but what does that have to do with who shot when?"

"In my years as an agent, I've come across similar situations involving cellphones and in certain events, you could possibly hear conversations you weren't meant to hear by the mammal behind the curtains." Savage said. "So if what I'm predicting is true, then the third mysterious five mammal might have been on a phone call with one of these animals before the shooting began. It could only explain the fact that they didn't shoot them from the start, because they hadn't already arrived yet after they heard the sounds of gunfire over the phone."

"Even if that was true, the third member still had to have been somewhere close by, a few minutes at the very least." Mchorn implied. "How in the hell could they have had a fast enough time to react?"

"Well, from our sources and like you said, one of the mysterious five members was a rabbit."

"Oh please, a rabbit like that had to have gone through _fit_ training if they wanted to get here before they shot the other member." Mchorn assumed.

"Well foxes are not fast enough, by the time they got to here in a short period of time and even if only a few minutes away, they'd be dead by then." Savage disagreed. "So it's better to think that this was a _rabbit_ who crashed the party in this case. It would explain the out of control shooting on the otter, as well as the jaguar. Instinct played a big part in this, no doubt about it."

"Like each side had the same identical goals of surviving, you can say?"

" _Identical goals…"_ Savage mumbled, while shaking his head and still trying to process the outcome of what happened here. He sighed. "Animals with identical goals can be inflicted into two outcomes, the good way and the opposite way. Sure, you got animals who both want peace in the world and no questions asked. This however, both sides took survival as their first priority…. I suppose it just comes to show, animals may show their _true_ colors in a desperate attempt when needed to."

"The only difference is, we don't ever come to terms with the good way." Mchorn informed. "Nothing but protests and rants against us everywhere I may walk. It almost makes me feel like I'm not doing my job right."

"Almost?"

"Well, being too considerate towards it only brings in more aggravation." Mchorn said. "Nevertheless if I slack up now, I'm not going to be like what Chief Bogo brought to this city, not in a million years."

"It's good to have an idol, you know." Savage said. "It keeps you going, figuring 'if he or she can do that, then maybe I can to', kind of vibe to it. Become obsessed with them however, and you soon turn into someone who's not you, but a man wearing the mask of obsession."

"And taking off the mask is going to solve anything?" Mchorn asked. "Maybe sometimes animals can't help it. Or maybe, just maybe…. They turned out to not be any more different than they always were. Just the monster who's always been there and which only you can control, if you had the strength to."

"I'd say we just take out the monster in them before they grow." Savage said, as he had already begun to walk back out of the crime scene. "Alright I've seen enough, I'll be going somewhere private to investigate the photos we shot, with the further analysis of the animals we've identified to see if we can make any new connections."

"What do you suggest we do for the rest of the time?"

"Pack it all up, I believe we've found whatever it is we're supposed to be looking for here." Savage requested. "Also if my theory is correct about the cellphones, it would be useful to me if you gave me the names and profiles of rabbits, probably a bit less than a single mile radius from here. I'd say it's time we began lowering the possibilities for once."

* * *

Later that evening

"YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!" Amber shouted, as she, Nick, and Judy were in Nick's apartment discussing the events of what happened last night. "And not to mention, both of you took out three mammals who originally had the upper paw, something you shouldn't be making a habit out of!"

"Do you think we _wanted_ it to come down to what happened in that alleyway?" Judy asked. "Amber they ambushed Nick and put him in a position where they were prepared to kill him. They had already killed Danny, and I knew damn straight the moment I heard that large horn noise on the phone, that things were about to go even _further_ south for Nick."

"I've been telling you over and over again everyday Nick, _you can't keep up with this business any longer."_ Amber said slowly, hoping Nick would get the message. "Three of your members have died now ever since this all started, and do you two know what that means?"

Judy sighed, speaking out for Nick in utter nervousness. "It means myself and Nick are the only ones left to be available for deals."

"Have you two ever even tried to explain to Z, over the course of time you two have been taking part in this that it's easy enough to find replacements for the money he offers his workers?" Amber asked. "I mean for Christ sake, you two don't even want to have any sort of participation in this line of work!"

"Thanks captain obvious." Judy snarled, knowing that she was in fact pointing out the obvious. "I believe he said something about the trust their buyers have for us, and the fact that we know everything about the differences between a good and bad method of trading. I assume we're considered 'the best' with making things go smoothly, and if Z can keep that image of reputation amongst his new and old buyers, he'll be making a lot more money. In fact so much money, he'll be making more in just one week than we make in a year, and that's just with him."

"Oh so it's about money now, huh?" Nick wondered.

"It's what it's always been about Nick!" Judy exclaimed. "Everything Z had done so far was to ensure he got a nice and well-earned paycheck by the end of the week. He doesn't give a damn about anyone else, as long as they chip in on their side of the bargain."

"Well, we've never seen much depression in him after losing his own crew members." Nick said. "He may act mad about it, but remorse isn't quite something he seems like he's capable of acting out upon."

"So if both of you were to die right now, he'd go on acting as if it never happened basically." Amber assumed.

"Well, he did say 'money's money' after all." Judy said.

"See, but that's my point!" Amber exclaimed. "The moment he tells you guys something, you just automatically assume he's correct. Sooner or later it's going to get to a point where if he tells you he's god, you're not going to raise a paw in objection."

"Okay Amber, enough with the silly talk now." Nick requested.

" _Silly talk?"_ Amber asked in shock. "It's the truth Nick. What, are you just too blind or something to see it? Has the sunshine from your bedroom window affected you from seeing right, every day?"

"That's not what I meant Amber." Nick said. "You're saying it like you assume we have a choice in the matter. Well guess what? We don't. We only did what we _had_ to do in that alleyway because they were waving guns at our faces, not like we get enough of those as it is."

"So that's it then?" Amber asked, shrugging. "You… you murder a bunch of animals who nearly killed you over a reason of 'leaving no witnesses behind', and now you're just going to cast it all away into the wind thinking this is the way we can make things right again?"

"… What more can we do Amber?" Nick asked.

Infuriated by Nick's comments, Amber stood up and was prepared to give Nick a hard slap across the face. Not just because he was going against her, but because he started to sound like he was giving up again. But just as she was speeding over to where Nick was sitting, Judy spoke.

 _"_ _No…"_ Judy said deeply.

Both Amber and Nick turned their heads in Judy's direction. "No what?" Nick asked.

"I refuse to sanitize this anymore Nick." Judy said. "We're going around all day with the same old actions, the same old talk, the same old emotions, the laugh, heck even the same old stench."

"Judy…" Nick said, hoping she isn't going in the direction he thinks she's going in with this.

"Now we're doing it so well, we don't even realize it ourselves." Judy claimed. "We've felt _powerless_ after all this time, and it's exactly what that twisted zebra wants us to think. He's brought us to a point where we're just slaves of his evil doing, and that makes us no better than him."

 _"_ _Finally, somebody gets it."_ Amber thought.

"It's funny, up to this point the number one thing concerning me in my mind was killing." Judy said. "I remember when you brought it up Nick after that conference we had with Savage at the bullpen. I told you I tried not thinking about it, but the truth is, not a moment has gone by from the night us five were taken in to see Z for the first time that I haven't thought about killing."

"Judy, it's normal to think like that but at certain times you need to understand-"

"The weirdest part is that I had the potential to do it to anybody I wanted to." Judy said, interrupting Nick. "When I was in the academy, they taught me a bit more than the typical punching and kicking maneuvers. What scared me the most was that sooner or later, every time I fired a shot at the shooting range, I would never miss a single one."

 _"_ _It would explain her skills of shooting since she hit the animals directly at target every time."_ Nick thought.

"Good enough to do better than Danny did?" Amber asked.

Judy nodded lightly. "I don't want to kill anybody. But something inside myself told me I've wanted to kill him ever since he shot your mother Nick…. And I have a good feeling that's when your motivation began as well."

"…." Nick was silent, unable to deny what Judy was saying.

"For so many years, I learned life was a gift to everyone." Judy said. "That it couldn't ever be taken for granted, and taking one just for the heck of it is the most despicable thing of all to think about. But that's what I thought. But because of that thought, if I did commit that act, I assumed I'd most likely be going to hell if you two ever believe in that kind of stuff. So I focused on helping animals and I was _good_ at it, until Z came along. So now I ask myself, what kind of a belief does Z have in him after the countless number of victims he leaves behind him? Does he just think life is worthless enough, that he can kill someone and the world will simply move on with their lives as if nothing happened?"

Nick and Amber looked at each other with concern, having their own thoughts on the topic Judy brought up.

"It's taken me too long to decide upon it up until now." Judy said. "I have tried over, and over, and over again to resolve this without anyone getting hurt. And when I realized I had brought my own friends into something unimaginable as this I thought-" She paused herself, as water began to fill her eyes. "I thought maybe…. I could keep everyone safe without having to take a life…. BUT WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" She shouted. "They're all dead now after all…."

Nick began to hold back his own tears in the process. "….There wasn't anything you could have done."

"When I sprinted over to where you were being held at gunpoint and saw Danny's body in a pool of blood, something in me just snapped." Judy explained. "Everything I believed in and swore I would never do until my last breath… I broke it. I didn't want any more of my friends to die, and if you died as well Nick then I could never live with myself after it! You're the only one I have left to help me through this, otherwise I'd be alone and…. I don't want to be alone!" She shouted, as she busted into tears while covering her face.

Nick immediately walked over to the couch Judy was sitting on and sat himself down. He then moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her for comfort.

"Remember what I told you all those months back?" Nick asked. "I promised you I would never leave your side as long as this was happening. Because to be honest, I feel the exact same with you."

Judy uncovered her head from her paws and looked at Nick with her reddish eyes she still had on her. "Nick…"

"Judy…" Nick replied.

"I'm done with Z." Judy stated.

"Done with him?" Amber asked, coming into the conversation.

"He has made our lives living hell the moment he took us in, and you and I have been aware of that fact for a while now." Judy said. "If we try to bring him in or tell the ZPD, more innocent animals are going to get killed because of it…. That's why we need to get ready." She said, standing up.

"Ready?" Amber wondered.

"For what?" Nick asked.

Judy then slowly walked over to Nick's window, gazing out into the gigantic sight of the city from the view she was looking. She then took it all in and exhaled deeply while turning her head back towards Amber and Nick.

"We're getting ready to make sure Z doesn't ever hurt this city again." Judy said.

"And how do you propose on doing that?" Amber asked.

"Simple." Judy answered. "We have to kill him."

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 48, Making Things Right**


	49. Making Things Right

**Chapter 48: Making Things Right**

February 21st, 2017, the day during the interviews with Z

"Daniel Zannick Wolford, that's your full name correct?" Z asked while looking at a profile, as Danny stepped into the room for his meeting with Z.

"You know for a guy like yourself Z, to me it's quite a shocker that you actually care enough to know this stuff, especially with someone like me." Danny said.

"Well in both _this_ and my normal job too, I'm required to remember the names of each of my clients." Z explained. "You can consider it a sign of respect in the business industry, if you want. If I had forgotten the name of a client I had of mine just last week and I ask them to repeat my name, do you really think they'll have enough trust in myself to memorize what they're telling me? And believe me, there's more animals out there for my line of work than you'd think nowadays."

"Forgive me for asking this, but can you tell me again what your _line of work_ is, besides smuggling weapons everywhere throughout the city?"

"Too much." Z said, halting Danny from asking anything more about what he does outside of his criminal activities. "Now according to your file, you seem to be quite the automobile engineer. Well, at least motorcycle wise."

"Yea so?" Danny asked. "It's a job, you ever heard of it?"

"It just seems… rather odd to my knowledge is all." Z replied. "Which reminds me actually, Richard do you mind taking the machine out now?" He asked the leopard standing beside him, as Richard began walking outside to retrieve the item.

"Machine, what kind of machine?" Danny asked, getting a little nervous. "This… this isn't something like a torturing method of yours, is it?"

"Oh, god no." Z said, acting as if it was a joke he just heard. "This is just to make sure whatever you're telling us is the _real_ answer."

"Oh no, don't tell me you animals actually brought a lie detector with you." Danny wondered.

"Boy do you sure catch on quicker than others." Z said, as Richard came back through the door holding the lie detector.

"I personally don't see a point in wearing this, I've got nothing to hide from you that you think you haven't figured out yet about myself." Danny said. "But listen, it's been a few minutes now, and there's still no show of Judy, Nick, Finnick or Clawhauser. Do you mind letting me know what the situation is on that end if you don't mind?"

"I understand I might have told you about coming to this meeting urgently and that your other friends would be attending as well, but I thought it would be best if we discussed the basics of coming back to a business such as mine a little more privately." Z explained.

"Privately, what's there to discuss privately if it's only about an overall discussion upon returning to the _hell_ in which you've personally shoved us into?"

"I'd watch that running mouth of yours if I were you." Z threatened. "I may not have brought anything to play with for torturing. However if you're going to go down that road, then it would be almost too easy to use plain and simple alternatives in this room at this moment. Maybe _then_ we should see if that mouth of yours is still full of crap."

"Whatever." Danny said, while crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Set up the wires on him so we can begin." Z said. "So Daniel, let's start with your past."

"Lay it on me."

"Tell me Daniel, do you have any skills you think we should be aware of, other than your personal mechanic work on some automobiles?"

Danny thought about it for a moment before responding. "Umm… nothing that exactly comes to mind currently."

"He's lying." Richard said.

"You've got nothing to hide, huh?" Z said, mimicking what Danny told him earlier.

"What, no!" Danny shouted. "I swear to you, I don't know anything else which I can be thinking about right now!"

"He's still lying, the blood pressure's continuing to rise in his head." Richard claimed.

"Danny, I'm pretty sure lie detectors were made for a reason, definitely not to make sudden educated guesses on whether or not the animal's lying." Z contradicted. "Because of it, I'm fully confident there's something in which you're seeming to be having trouble confessing to. So here's an idea, how about you say it?"

"Oh shut your trap, you can't get anything out of someone if they don't even have a single thing to hide." Danny commented.

Z didn't think at first he would be getting so agitated at someone such as Danny. " _Danny."_ He said, as he leaned in towards where Danny was sitting. " _Are you going to cooperate, or are myself and Richard here going to have to use our little 'torture' methods we discussed earlier?"_

Danny soon sat back up straight, after leaning on his chair before hearing from Z about his plans to act persuasive enough for him to talk. He knew he was trying to hide a certain talent of his, but was afraid to say it. He didn't want the tragic memories of that little girl and the car accident to come back into his head.

"I know what you did Daniel." Z brought up.

Danny's head immediately shot up after hearing those words come out of Z's mouth. "Know… know what exactly?" He asked.

"I saw the file from that day, and you seemed to have been included in as one of the witnesses to that scene." Z informed. "Sure enough however, police suspected you as number one due to your exhausted state when talking to them while wearing only casual clothing."

"How, how could you have…" Danny asked silently, while still in shock.

"They still couldn't arrest you however, due to lack of evidence but they still kept a record of it in the files of the ZPD." Z said. "But I've got the slightest idea that it was you who caused the accident."

"N-no it wasn't me, it was a mistake!" Danny yelled.

"He's still lying." Richard said.

"Wow, I guess we figured out who the biggest liar is out of the five of you." Z said to Richard. "They found small little air balls near the street of where the crime took place however, but the police overlooked it and found it to be unhelpful in regards to the story of the case. Now I'm just going to take a crack at this here and tell me if I'm wrong on any part."

Danny was dead silent now throughout the process, and felt like he was getting pinned to an imaginary wall while trying to grasp through getting out of it.

"You one day were finally able to retrieve an actual rifle that fires, and decided to do a little bit more than the usual target practice you and your brother would typically do." Z theorized. "So you decide to use it on _real living_ targets instead, probably just for the fun and experience of it all. You soon find it to be so much fun in that mind of yours, that you even decide to target it at a little girl. That is, until things got a little too out of paw and she ran onto the street without thinking, and that's when the unexpected car came driving down the street."

" _It… it was an accident."_ Danny murmured, trying to hold back the tears in his eyes.

"That girl was paralyzed from the waist down, and has been in that current state ever since." Z said. "You may think it was an accident in your mind, but that girl will never be able to walk again for the rest of her life. Can you even imagine what the mother must have felt like at that time, watching her own daughter run on the road like that and witness something which will affect her for the rest of her life?"

 _"_ _Stop it…"_ Danny pleaded, even covering his ears as he couldn't handle the emotions going through him from what he had no choice but to hear.

"You may not know it already, but I'm a parent as well." Z brought up. "I love my daughter the way she is too, and if someone ever hurt her in a way which can't ever be fixed, then I would give them an excruciatingly painful hell of a nightmare worse than death itself. And realizing what you've done while comparing it to my own kit, I almost feel like putting a bullet inside your skull _right now_."

"I SAID STOP IT!" Danny howled, while slamming his paws onto the table in frustration. "There's not a _DAY_ in my life ever since that accident happened that I don't feel regret for what I did, you think you can give me a painful nightmare? I'VE HAD THEM FOR YEARS BECAUSE OF WHAT I CAUSED!"

"And finally, the wolf breaks." Z said, grinning to himself. "From the sounds of it, you seems to be one of those animals who doesn't care about the precautions or dangers to a task, but as long as they reward you at the end of the day, right?"

"….How did you know about it?" Danny asked blatantly.

Z cocked an eyebrow, curious as to what he meant. "Know what?"

"You said you looked into the ZPD files, but aren't ZPD files only meant for the ZPD to look at?" Danny asked, but with no response from Z yet. "I mean if that's true, then how someone like you could have found out about what I did is literally impossible to do!"

Z smiled. "Let's just say, a magician never reveals his secrets."

* * *

March 4th, 2018, present

"You're out of your mind…." Officer Wolford said, after hearing information about the case on Flock Street.

"I understand how hard it must be to hear this from myself, but this morning the DNA results from the forensics team confirmed the deceased mysterious five member was your brother." Savage explained, as he had called Officer Wolford in earlier to discuss privately about the surprising identification on one of the bodies.

" _No,_ no Danny would _never_ work with a criminal organization like this, not to mention the mysterious five itself." Wolford claimed, acting as if his whole body was somewhere else. "Whoever informed you about this, tell them to check twice."

"They did, and it was the same results." Savage stated. "I assume you can understand what I may be needing to hear from you next."

"I'M TELLING YOU IT WASN'T HIM DAMN IT!" Wolford hollard, as he slammed both paws onto the table. "He would never do such a thing! Not after, not after…. Well you get the point!"

"…Mr. Wolford, have you ever been seeing any suspicious activity of Danny during the time of your mother's disappearance?" Savage asked.

Wolford wanted to shout out the answer no to Savage's face, but even he himself couldn't deny his suspicious behaviour during the time his mother first went missing.

"We have reason to believe your brother did have something to do with your mother's disappearance, especially considering how she went missing during the time four other animals also went missing at once." Savage informed. "At that time, the only animals who came to mind capable of doing such things were the weapon manufacturers. The only questionable thing they had on their mind was, why them?"

" _That phone call I had with him…."_ Wolford thought.

* * *

September 25th, 2016, flashback

 _"What is wrong with you Danny?!"_ Matthew Wolford shouted, as he was on the phone with his brother Danny.

 _"Jeez, what mammal rattled your tail today Matt?"_ Danny asked,

 _"Our own mother goes missing for at least a week now and you don't even show the slightest concern for her!"_

 _"Aw what do you want me to do big brother, walk up to you and burst into tears while hugging your legs?"_ Danny asked sarcastically. _"I fear every day for her safety that I can't even remember when the last time was that I slept for more than two hours! But what do you expect me to do Matthew, you and the ZPD have been searching for her for about a week now but still not one hair of evidence has been found."_

 _"Well at least you can try to visit dad once in a while!"_ Matthew said furiously _. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he's been a mental wreck ever since mom went missing. Would it kill you for at least two seconds to comfort him while she isn't here?"_

 _"Well how was I supposed to know he'd be like that if he never calls me about it?"_

 _"Oh is that it, you expect him to call you to come and be with him?_ Matthew asked. " _God it's like you don't have any common sense at all!"_

 _"Well I've been busy Matt!"_ Danny replied _. "I've been busy a lot lately with work. I mean I got to pay my bills somehow if you haven't noticed."_

 _"Busy enough to not stop by just for a second to be there for your family, are you serious right now Daniel?"_

Danny groaned. _"I gotta go dude."_

 _"Somethings not been right with you lately Danny."_ Matthew said in a serious tone. _"You and your stories of saying that I got this and that to do and never seeing any of us anymore can't just simply be out of nowhere if you've had the same job for years now. If you've gotten yourself into something you shouldn't have gotten into, whether you lie or tell the truth about it I don't care, I will figure it out eventually."_

 _"Uh huh, and when you see that it's nothing, maybe I'll accept your apology."_ Danny scowled as he hung up the phone.

* * *

"There was this, phone call I had with him a couple years back…" Wolford admitted, trying to jog back his memory. "I called Daniel because I was mad at him. Ever since my mom went missing, he never showed a _peep_ around me and my father, even at certain times when we would typically bump into each other at the same bar or mall stores. It felt like he was trying to avoid us both, or quite frankly the whole city for some reason."

"Don't you find it rather odd now, however?" Savage asked.

"Find what odd?"

"The five animals who went missing back in the month of September in 2016." Savage answered. "After looking back at those cases and figuring out who three of the mysterious five animals are, I've noticed a pattern."

Wolford seemed surprised. "A pattern, did you say?"

"Yes, a pattern." Savage replied, as if he himself was still thinking about what he had on his own mind to theorize. "There was Maria Masto, Ellie Clawhauser, Stuart Hopps, Sarah Wilde, and your mother Sherry Wolford. The pizza slice mysterious five member Finnick Masto was Maria's son, the microphone mysterious five member Benjamin Clawhauser was Ellie's brother, and the headset mysterious five member Danny Wolford was Sherry's son. Ironic isn't it?"

Wolford's jaw dropped after realizing the pattern himself. He couldn't even believe Savage had figured out this decisive factor in regards to learning the identification of the remaining mysterious five members.

"Just give me a second to figure out what you're implying…" Wolford said, still thinking about it. "You mean to tell me, that those five disappearances are somehow all connected to the mysterious five animals?"

"Well in my opinion, let me put it this way." Savage said. "Once is full of irony, twice is coincidental, but three times is when it turns into a serious matter of suspicions."

"So hang on, there's still no connections towards Stuart Hopps and Sarah Wilde." Wolford pointed out. "Do you seriously think anyone closely related to them might be the other two members?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking too, so I asked Ramone from downstairs to let me use her computer to see if I would find anything that popped up." Savage continued. "Stuart's family was rather difficult at first since he had over 275 children in his family."

 _"_ _My god…"_ Wolford thought.

"But as for Sarah Wilde, it was easy enough since all she had was one son." Savage stated. "But in order to lower the possibilities to one animal with Stuart Hopps, I crossed referenced all of his children with the ones who were currently living in Zootopia, and lucky enough I found one match."

"Who are these animals exactly?"

Savage then went out of his seat, opened one of the file cupboards he had in his office and took out two files. He then took a seat again and plopped both the files onto his desk for Wolford to see. Wolford then opened the files and was immediately stunned after seeing the faces he was staring at on the files.

"…Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde?" Wolford asked, still surprised.

"Again, this is only a theory." Savage pointed out. "I cannot confirm, nor deny that Mr. Wilde and Miss Hopps have something to do with what's been happening with the weapon manufacturers, but it's too out of place for it to be another simple coincidence. The remaining mysterious five members have also been rumored on the streets to be a fox and a rabbit as well."

"But they're cops, officers of the law!" Wolford exclaimed, still having trouble with processing the thought of it. "They _helped_ this city by capturing not only the animals responsible for kidnapping the predators in the night howlers case, but also the animals responsible for _causing_ the predators to go savage! Why on earth would they even think of doing such heinous acts to this city?"

"I have no idea." Savage admitted. "Motivation is sometimes the hardest part to figure out in investigations like this. But for animals like this in particular, they're too high profile to do such crimes across the city, willingly at least."

"But I still can't even _imagine_ that as a possibility, have you ever had one of those feelings before inside of you?"

"Yes, yes I have numerous of times now." Jack replied, understanding his thoughts on the suspected members. "But another theory for another day. For now, I suggest you take a few days off of work. I understand how hard it must be to lose someone very close to you without any understanding of it yet."

"But what about your theory?" Wolford asked. "I mean if you are actually correct about this, then this could really mean a chaotic difference to solving the manufa-"

"That is not your concern Officer Wolford." Savage informed, trying to make sure no funny ideas came to his mind, especially after learning something undoubtedly tragic to himself. "Take my advice if you're smart enough because trust me, you need to clear your head now of all times."

"But sir with all due respect, I can't simply stop working after realizing whoever my brother worked for is still out there on the streets-!"

" _That's an order."_ Savage said slowly. "I've been through your position before and I know the outcome of it."

"Oh is that so?" Wolford asked, taunting Savage out of aggravation. "Then _prove_ it."

Savage glared back at Wolford with a disgusted look. "My older brother and I were in the military for a few years before I became an agent. Both of us were really confident in our roles, as we were there for each other through every step of the way. It was my first day as a recruit, and I was instructed to go with a group including my brother to deliver supplies towards another nearby base to further analyze the city with a certain head criminal of an organization hiding among it. But as we were about halfway, we were ambushed. Luckily we fought it off but by the time it was over, I hadn't realized my brother took an untreatable wound to the heart…. He died in my arms that day after whispering the words to me, _"I love you little brother."_ He quoted.

Wolford bit his lip in the awkward scenario he had put himself in. "Listen, I know what you're trying to tell me about getting over things and moving on, but I swear to you I'm okay to-"

"I wasn't finished." Savage interrupted. "The next day I told my sergeants there was no need for me to go home, that I was fine and could handle myself through this process even for a rookie but the truth is, taking out every single criminal in that organization was all I gave a damn about. So I did some research on all the minor and major structures and buildings throughout the city, until I could estimate a few possible locations from what we've already learned about their routines day by day. I showed it to the heads to see if they would buy taking a look at any of them to raid on, and they did. nevertheless, turns out not only were they the wrong locations, but the head mammal knew we would be searching there and so he placed bombs inside all of the locations in case we ever did come snooping for him. We lost approximately fifteen soldiers because of that mistake and seven with major injuries…. But the high ranks couldn't blame me considering the fact I was unaware of the bombs hidden inside those buildings at the time."

 _"_ _Fifteen?"_ Wolford asked, surprised at the high number of casualties.

Savage nodded slowly. "Uh huh, all because I wasn't thinking straight at the other possibilities…" He said, after a brief moment of silence. "Moral of the story is, it's better to be thinking slowly and straight, than fast and out of place."

"…Alright." Wolford said in agreement.

"Thank you for taking my advice, it means more than you might think." Savage credited, as Wolford opened the door to his office walking out while it closed automatically by itself.

Savage however sat in his seat for a few moments, as he couldn't help but remember the tragic events which happened on those days. After the time had passed, he got up from his chair and decided to put the two files back in the filing cabinets for the time being. But just as he was closing the cabinet, he heard his desk phone ringing to a number from inside the ZPD. Savage then clicked the mic button so he wouldn't have to pick up the phone itself.

"Who is this?" Savage asked the animal on the other end.

 _"_ _Um agent Savage this is Officer Ramone from downstairs, I have officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde with me at the front desk right now."_ Ramone informed. _"They said there's something urgent they would like to discuss privately with you in your office right away."_

 _"_ _Could they really be…"_ Savage thought. "What did they say the occasion was?" He asked.

 _"_ _All they're telling me is about a discussion of making things right, and you're the best animal to talk to about it."_

 _"_ Hmm…" Savage said, still trying to think about what the best call was. "…Okay, but tell them it will have to be brief because I was in the middle of examining certain crime scene photos of the Flock street case."

 _"_ _Will do."_ Ramone said, going off the line.

Savage then took a seat back into his chair and smiled at the thoughts going through his head. "Well this should be interesting." He said to himself.

* * *

There was nowhere left for Chip to go now. Now that Biggy was dead, he knew Z's animals would eventually be going to his house to sweep the area, at least if they were smart enough to leave no stone unturned. So he went on the road, packed as much food, clothing and money as he could find until his bag was full of the right essentials. He wasn't tired of hiding from the world in his current state, but it still did hurt inside to be leaving his own family behind. His sister was all he had left of a family after his mother recently died, but he figured she would be the first place Z would keep a few of his animals on patrol in case if he did decide to go see her.

He wasn't sure where else he could go without anyone recognizing him or worse, being found by any of Z's contacts outside the city of Zootopia. By the afternoon, he had reached the highway for leaving the city. He kept a hoodie on and walked slowly, so other cars or trucks driving by would assume he's just another homeless animal trying to explore what other opportunities were out there for him to see, or become a part of.

But that didn't mean he was finished just yet. He decided to make one last stop at a certain area where he and Biggy hadn't been in nearly a couple years. There was something in Biggy's tone of voice Chip began to understand now, ever since hearing what seemed like a request now, rather than a satisfactory answer.

It took him a few hours to walk out far enough, and luckily he was able to remember the spot where they put him, even if it was something Chip wanted to forget in the first place. He took his hoodie off once he was certain the coast was clear and let the large blow of the wind from the ocean down below flow through his clothing and fur, in relief of finally feeling the outside world once more. After a few more moments of gazing into the ocean, he moved on to his main priority for where he was supposed to go.

He walked up to one of the larger hills close to the sand and from a good angle, you can see the entire remains of the bridge that collapsed about ten years ago, which is why most animals never ended up coming to this spot again. But as he was walking on the hill, he noticed a vague circle of light green grass lighter than the grass surrounding it. As he examined it more closely while jogging his memory of the the time he was last here, he soon stood back up and smiled to himself.

"This is the place." Chip told himself.

Immediately, he crouched onto his knees and began digging with his own bare paws as fast as he could. It was harder for him this time considering how he didn't have a shovel to use, causing many of the grass roots to get in his way during the process of digging. Approximately ten minutes of rough digging had gone by and his paws were beginning to feel sore from pulling and pushing all the dirt out of the way back and forth.

His motivation, you can say was the hope that there really was something inside the hole, and that what Biggy had told him before he died wasn't simply something to pull his chain, Chip didn't want to remember Biggy like that. He wanted to remember him as someone who had the strength to do something right at the very end, no matter the consequences when dead or alive for that matter.

But finally, the feeling with Chip's paws he had been praying to touch all day had finally happened. What he felt wasn't anything like a piece of clothing or rotten flesh, but more like a belt string you would usually see on duffel bags. He then stood up and pulled as hard as he could on the string until indeed, a large duffel bad came popping up from the ground. Chip exhaled deeply after accomplishing his goal, as he had already begun to kick some of the dirt back into the hole to make sure nobody could see the remains of the dead Kudu.

He zipped open the bag, and the first thing he noticed inside of it were three fully-loaded pistols, and a medium sized assault rifle inside of it. Chip did recall Z mentioning a few weapons missing from his storage unit down at Jerry's Cheesecake store a couple times, but he never expected some of them to pop up here. Nevertheless, it was good for him to retrieve something to protect himself with in case trouble did come for him along the road between him and any of Z's animals outside the city.

There was a few rolls of money stuffed inside the corner, as Chip expected of Biggy, along with another small black-leathered bag inside which caught his attention. He too the smaller bag out and zipped it open, only to find it to be just a bag for ammunition magazines. However, just as Chip was about to zip it back up, he noticed a small and thin white object to the side of the small bag. He took it out and to his surprise, were actually pieces of paper folded tightly together with words seeming to be written on them.

 _"_ _Wait a minute…"_ Chip thought, after taking a closer look at what was on the first line of one of the pieces of paper. _"…Dear Chip?"_ He wondered, surprised after realizing the papers were actually one letter directed towards Chip.

But before any more questions were to arise in Chip's mind, he thought I would be best to read the letter first and see if they would be answered after reading it.

 _Dear Chip, if you are reading this currently, then it means I am either on the run and am only leaving you this letter, or most likely dead. But since I haven't left yet, then I suppose it's most likely the 'me being dead' option. I swear to you and just know that I'm saying this honestly, I never meant for whatever happened to me to happen. Loyalty is a big thing to me, and when you've got something going with someone in that perspective, then just stick with it. Well, unless you soon realize the person you're loyal to is an insane sociopath who does whatever he thinks he can do, without having even a teency wee bit of remorse from a bitter end._

 _So anyway, I hope whatever you got from the bag is useful to you for wherever you plan on walking to. I originally planned to use it as an emergency bag since around the time we were at this hole, I decided to try and turn the tables on Z. I didn't want to leave someone as monstrous as him unchained into a city where my wife and sons are growing up in, what kind of a father figure would ever let his kids grow up in an environment of fear anyway, right?_

 _That reminds me however, there is something I wanted to let you know about. I got a friend about a city or two away from here who owes me a couple of favors after the countless times I've saved his tail from the street thugs of Zootopia, before he had about enough and decided to move elsewhere. After I realized things were still beginning to heat up from the assassinations Z somehow pulled off without even a toothpick of traces to tag back to him behind, I knew I needed some assurance if something ever were to happen to me while flying too close to the sun._

 _It may not have been the best option in mind at the time. But considering it was the only one, I've decided to shift the job to you Chip. I don't know how long it will take you to successfully do it but since I couldn't myself, you're going to have to be the one to do it in my place. I've known for quite some time about your large hatred for Z as you have always spoke of towards myself, so hopefully with the guns I've left in these bags it can at least give you a head start. I know, I know. How are you supposed to do it against someone like Z, you ask? I wish I had an answer but to tell you the truth, I have no clues to give you for it. Either way, I hope you don't stop until that zebra is dead. You and I both know far too well of what he's capable of doing ever since his plots on Lionheart, Bogo and Bellwether. If he could do that and still get away with it, then who knows what else he'll be plotting next to the city. It could even come to a point where he'll overpower the ZPD and the rest of Zootopia's precincts, and have every animal in the city act as if he decides what animals can and can't do._

 _Or maybe I'm just getting a little too ahead of myself. But as I was saying, my friend can keep you safe and let you hide in his house for as long as it takes…. I hope. All you have to do is say the number 23 to him immediately when he opens his door. He'll know straight away that you're with me and he'll let you in. if you're worried about rejection, don't. This guy was like family to me, and even always kept complaining to me about feeling bad that he never returns the favors I assist him with. I've put the address on the back of his page to let you know his exact location. It may be at least twelve hours of driving away from Zootopia, but I'm sure you've already taken my van as well so it shouldn't bee too much of a problem for you. Just make sure there isn't anything inside the van which may lead back to you._

 _"_ _Why of all nights did Biggy have to die while he was still inside his van?"_ Chip thought. _"Well, no use in thinking about it now since the police have already confiscated it."_

 _There was actually one more thing I put on the back of the letter for you to see. The phone number on the back is a cell phone number belonging to Nick Wilde, one of the remaining mysterious five members which I'm sure you may remember already by now. Obviously after a few confrontations with the animals themselves, they've also grown massive hatred inside of them against Z and will one day come to the same goal you and I have had on our minds for a while. Once you've sorted everything out with yourself and my friend if you take my advice, I hope you will call them at least a few times to try and get some inside perspective for the time being. At least until you feel to have gotten enough information and resources to which you feel like you can return to the city and do the one thing many have tried, but failed to successfully do before._

 _I think that's all I wanted to inform you about with this letter. I'm sorry if you really are yelling at this letter, shouting out things like, 'Why did you have to leave me now Biggy,' or 'No Biggy this is too much pressure for one wolf to do,' but I guess mistakes happen to everyone, heck even Z. But wherever I am, just know that I'm still rooting for you somewhere out there whether you like it or not. Just promise me you won't make too many mistakes while you're out there and for the love of god, please don't get yourself killed Simon._

 _Your friend, Bill_

* * *

 **Next week: Chapter 49, Overall Outcomes**


	50. Overall Outcomes

**Chapter 49: Overall Outcomes**

Jack Savage wasn't sure how to feel at the moment. On one paw, he assumed Nick and Judy would be going to talk to him because of their secret, or they could just be trying to see what he had been theorizing up until the last time they had a discussion with one another.

 _"_ _This is all too perfect timing…"_ Savage thought. _"It's only been a couple days since the shootout on Flock Street, an NOW all of a sudden they want to discuss something with me? Something about that just doesn't seem to add up in my head... Could be overthinking it."_

Savage was beginning to act a little more protective of himself than usual. He had other certain theories of his own he preferred to keep private with, which is why he chose to do his work in private, and decide for himself of what to and not to show to the public until further notice. And just as a precaution, he still had his sidearm weapon on him at all times. He may not look like it, but he's the type of mammal who could react fast enough to take down five rhinoceros's without even breaking a sweat. He undoubtedly understood himself how big of an ace he was at his work, but that didn't stop him from keeping his guard down whatsoever in the process.

A few moments later, the door to his office stood wide open with two officers standing in front of it. A couple seconds had already gone and neither of the animals ever said a word to each other. Then again, it _was_ only a couple seconds. However, under the circumstances they had been put under, each side had already begun to have their suspicions simply by looking at one another from a close enough distance to soon turn it into an awkward moment of silence.

Jack decided to break those few seconds of silence and began smiled. "Please, have a seat you two. I was actually hoping one day we would become available once again to acquaint with each other for another chat such as the previous occurrence."

"It's nice to me you to Mr. Savage." Judy greeted, as she closed the door while herself and Nick were taking a seat in front of Savage.

"As you may have already heard from Officer Ramone downstairs, I'm in the progress of examining photos from the Flock Street crime scene so this better be quick." Savage requested.

"Hate to break it to you Mr. Savage, but I don't think this is going to be the kind of _quick_ you're thinking about." Nick said.

"Oh _really?_ " Savage asked, curious as to where this was going. "Do you mind putting me in on your reasons for this certainty of yours?"

Nick and Judy looked at each other, as they weren't sure who should speak first about it.

"We thought it would be best if we spoke about this privately, we don't want to make a commotion out of the entire ZPD about this, not yet at least." Nick said.

"Make a commotion about what?" Savage asked.

"Well Mr. Savage, you see…." Nick said, hesitating. "We uh… well it's kind of hard to put it all in one sentence really, I mean what we're about to tell you may seem a little-"

"We're The Mysterious five." Judy said blatantly, with her arms crossed.

"…Sudden." Nick said, finishing his sentence after Judy had interrupted him.

Savage did not say a word, not even showing himself with an expression of shock or surprise. He only acted towards Nick and Judy verbally as if he wanted to hear more about their confession, but he never got anything else out of it.

Judy on the other paw, wasn't finished speaking either way. "We're simply tired of what this organization has caused upon us, and we want to put a stop to it for _good_. It's because if there's one thing we know about it by now, especially as officers, more innocent lives will be lost."

There was another moment of silence inside the room, as Judy and Nick waited for a response out of Savage. Though Savage wasn't responding, he seemed to be staring right at Nick and Judy as if he was examining them like an officer would with a crime scene photo. Both Judy and Nick clearly noticed his odd facial expressions and decided to let him take his time until he spoke. The only reason they weren't already trying to run out the door from his suspicious un-talkative behaviour was because he wasn't making a single move from his seat either, not even to the radio or phone on his desk sitting right in front of him.

"…You seriously think I never figured it out by now?" Savage asked, leaving stunned expressions upon Judy and Nick's face right away.

"W-what?" Nick asked, speaking silently.

Judy had trouble believing it as well, but she couldn't deny herself that she may have possibly underestimated Savage's abilities. "Hold on a second, you mean to tell us you _knew_ this whole time it was us who were behind those hoodies?" She asked, still in disbelief.

"Miss Hopps, do you want to know the difference between the ZPD and myself?" Savage asked, leaning in on his desk as Judy gave him and unsure expression. "It's that it doesn't matter who it is, if there's a suspicion on someone then I investigate it."

"Since when could you have even _suspected_ us?" Nick asked, still in denial about Savage's supposed known knowledge about him and Judy in regards to The Mysterious Five.

"Since the moment you two stepped into my office in regards to the stakeout case both of you did two years back." Savage replied. "You know, you may be officers and know a trick or two to passing stories, but I myself didn't find it to be very convincing. A stakeout takes place that day in regards to suspicious bag activity as if there's weapons in it, and then Judy's next-door neighbor Bucky simply _happens_ to go missing during the same time? Something like that would never sit well with anyone if they thought about it that way, but it seems like I'm the only one to have thought of it so far."

"That's a theory, not solid evidence." Nick argued. "Saying it as if you _knew_ it was us by something as unpredictable as that theory of yours, it wouldn't even sound convincing enough to please a jury if we had to go down that road by the end of this."

"Fair enough, I can simply repeat myself to what I was speaking to Officer Wolford about not too long ago." Savage said. "You see, I'm already fully aware of the disappearances of your father Miss Hopps, and your mother Mr. Wilde."

"…So?" Judy asked.

"If you haven't realized it yourself by now then allow me to put it as simply as I can for the two of you." Savage snapped back. "Daniel Wolford, Benjamin Clawhauser and Finnick Masto. The three of them were your companions from start of it all, eventually leading to your names of The Mysterious Five. Ironically, after figuring out they were all a part of that group, they were all related to three of the five animals who went missing in the month of September within the year of 2016. But the two unaccounted for were each from your families. Do you think a jury will be able to let that slip as a coincidence now Mr. Wilde?"

Nick stayed silent after having been cornered from his argument by Savage.

"Look we don't care if you already knew, we came here to ask you for help, otherwise we're just wasting our time and you may as well call up a few officers to pick us up now if you're so confident in yourself." Judy said straightforwardly.

"I'm always confident in myself Miss Hopps, it's how I do my job right all the time." Savage commented. "But I for one know the overall outcomes of what is to happen if I were to do so. Arresting you won't do any good, it's only going to make your own crime boss dramatically pissed off again towards the ZPD, and he'll be making some rather bold moves once more. Speaking of which, who is this boss of yours?"

"Everybody refers to him as Z every time we meet with him face-to-face." Nick brought up.

"I'm already fully aware of the nickname they call this animal, but I'm looking for a _real_ name here." Savaged demanded.

Nick and Judy looked at each other in concern, after already understanding what would happen if they gave Savage Z's real identity.

"It's not too hard to think about, if you ask me the identity should be the easy part out of all this." Savage continued.

"We've just been having hard experiences with animals once revealing a name to them, that's all." Nick said.

"Besides it's like you said so yourself, we've been having theories of our own as well." Judy informed.

"Oh yea?" Jack asked. "Enlighten me."

"Well, we think we're not the only ones betraying the badges on us at the moment." Judy said. "Ever since the start of it all, Z has been able to receive information and files only the ZPD could be permitted to viewing. Aside from Nick warning Z about the Cliffside asylum ambush back in late 2016, we've never given him a single finger print of information. Z's probably going to make up some stupid excuse saying how great his hackers are, but the problem with that argument is when we were first taken against our will underground some sort of storage room, I noticed something about the folders. All of them were labelled with the print of ZPD files on it, and of course Z would never have his typical folders shown that way. Not only to prove they were the real files, but _nobody_ in the ZPD ever pointed out any missing folders of profiles the very next day, and trust me they would notice it immediately."

"So you think there's someone else inside this building who's taking orders from Z himself?" Savage asked, as Judy and Nick both nodded at the same time. "I can't say I haven't thought about it already myself, the only problem is speaking claims such as those to the press is only going to cause unnecessary panic into the city. Animals back and forth will then be asking who they can trust and whatnot, just a bunch of fiascos I'd rather not be acquainting myself with at the moment."

"…So does that mean you know who it is then?" Nick asked.

"I may be good Wilde, but nobody can be _that_ good in the short span of time I've been here." Savage implied. "For now, let's call it a work in progress."

Nick shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Now then, we were speaking about the identification of your boss?" Savage reminded.

"Well Mr. Savage I don't mean to disrespect you or anything here, but for the moment it's too dangerous to." Judy answered. "I brought up the conversation of another worker of Z's lurking among the ZPD because we fear they'll find out what we told you and worse things down the road will only happen from there."

"You can tell me information regarding the organization, but not the identifications itself?" Savage asked, not understanding the logic behind Judy's reasoning. "That's a rather bold way of informing others about something important."

"Giving you information about the organization is easy, simply because you can pass it off as highly possible theories to both the ZPD and citizens of Zootopia." Judy said. "Identities however, are not so easily bought. Especially for Z, questions will begin to rise as to how they were informed of the names, and eventually it will only lead straight back to us."

"….So you're saying you don't trust me enough to keep it a secret." Savage said.

"It's not that we don't, but there's always that small possibility no matter what of a particular officer overhearing it at the most unexpected times." Judy justified. "Please forgive us for not informing you of them for the time being."

"Besides, we want to deal with him ourselves." Nick said, as Savage cocked an eyebrow in his direction. "He's brought us enough motivation to bring it to the point where we're looking to kill him once we have the chance to do so."

Savage laughed. "It's never too good to be true Wilde. You're saying it as if it's okay to murder our number one suspect, whom we predict can be the key to shutting down every single part of the, what he would refer to as _business_ within Zootopia. Smart thinking there." He said sarcastically.

"Savage if I know Z enough as of now and what he needs to keep control of everyday, it's that even for an animals like himself, he still needs to write it down somewhere." Judy said. "I assume whenever you can get a warrant to search his house once we've given you the identification, you will surely find it. Inside that house is most likely the police officer's definition of a chamber of gold waiting to be investigated into."

Savage thought about it for a moment, putting pressure on his lip with his two fingers in the process before responding. "If I may asked, what is it this animal has done to you both in particular to make you go so far in motivation wise to show him an un-expecting sticky end?"

Nick and Judy looked at each other as if they had just heard another funny joke. "What _hasn't_ he done to us is what you should be asking." Judy said. "He's taken nearly every animal we've cared about since the moment both of us took our first steps into this city. I barely even know anyone in Zootopia anymore now that the ones I knew are-" She said, choking herself up being unable to speak any further.

"Exactly how many animals you two have been acquainted with were killed because of Z?" Savage asked, as he took out a couple of writing utensils along with his mini notebook.

Nick shrugged. "We've lost count ever since the number had hit five or more."

"If I may add onto the discussion here, and considering I had already asked about this earlier, which of the five missing mammals from September of 2016 have died?"

Neither Nick nor Judy felt comfortable talking about the facts to Savage, _especially_ Nick. But regardless, they knew what they would possibly need to be discussing once he and herself stepped into Savage's office. Without showing too much emotion to Savage, they began saying the names.

"Well, there were actually six animals inside the prison cells itself." Judy informed. "There was this wolf guy who was supposed to be stuck in there for the rest of his life, considering he gave someone a certain warning call about an attack which was about to happen, and that caused two of Z's mammals to be killed. Z even told us at one point that he was lucky he didn't kill him himself, and that animals who do wrong-doings in his crew must be dealt with appropriately."

"I'm going to hold that thought for a moment Judy, did you just say prison cell?" Savage asked.

"Well it's not like he's making the government hide them in a heavily guarded prison." Judy said, gesturing. "Don't get the wrong idea here, it seems like it's some sort of modified abandoned area around where he found to be convenient enough to store animals for the time being."

"Do you have any idea where the location of this cell may be?" Savage asked.

"We were unable to find a _clear_ address if that's what you're asking." Judy answered. "We only ever saw a glimpse of it after Z had forced the five of us to be soon sent to his storage room. Although, judging from the dirty walls and large green molding growing all over it, we had to have been inside the sewers. Somewhere on an abandoned line and somewhere seemingly hot."

"Have you ever tried pinpointing the exact location?" Savage asked. "After all, you two sure do seem like the curious type who would."

"There's a lot more abandoned lines in the city than you may assume Savage." Judy said. "Besides, if we got caught snooping around the proper location of the cell, let's just say it would only mean bullet holes inside of us if we didn't use our words right."

Savage nodded in agreement. "Fair assumption for the time being I suppose." He said. "Now then, you were continuing with the other prisoners kept inside the cells?"

"I think it's better if we discuss the event in order with regards to what happened to each of them." Judy said, mainly speaking towards Nick.

"If you think it means you can focus better on the explanation, then by all means." Savage ensured.

"The first one was Sarah Wilde… Nick's mother." Judy hesitantly spoke. "She was shot after an uncomfortable dispute we had between Z regarding… _tasking problems_ with a bunch of bodies. He even decided to choose which animal should die using Russian roulette, _the crazy bastard."_ She murmured the last bit to herself.

"Continue." Savage said, as he continued to write notes.

"The second animal was Maria Masto." Judy said. "Originally we thought she died of sickness from the pollution inside the sewer cells affecting the air, but Finnick later told us otherwise. He says some guard on that day shot his mother point-blank in the head, for some motivation about ensuring that no other prisoners could get sick for the duration of the time, since she fell ill to something with discomforting outcomes. They thought if everyone got sick and all died, there would be no supply of motivation to keep us working for Z."

"It was unacceptable in the first place." Nick claimed. "Whoever that guard was, he had no permission to do such a thing towards her and there was probably medicine they could've gotten for her. I heard privately from one of the guys who had been working for Z that Z had a talk with whoever the guard was. But it acted like nothing ever changed and it was one of those, _'I promise I won't do it again without permission'_ kinds of crap." He said, mimicking what he presumed the guard told Z.

"Now's not the time for sympathy Nick, we have to continue with this." Judy requested. "The third one was Ellie Clawhauser. We later learned she died from drinking an unknown source of liquid from a cup one of the guards gave her, and soon poisoning her. The reasoning behind it however is rather more complicated than you may think."

"Did something happen between yourself and Z again, or was it a group involvement during the time?" Savage asked.

Judy though about it. "More or less for both ways." She said. "You see, after Clawhauser realized the fact that his sister was most likely going to be kept inside the cell until Z was finished with us, and by that I mean killing both our group and the group at the prison, he decided to take matters into his own paws. He soon seriously injured a faithful and loyal member of Mr. Big, a large crime boss known very well for his for his state of not having to cause any deaths up to this point… well, at least until Clawhauser told the injured polar bear before leaving that he was with Z's crew."

"And how did this Mr. Big character retaliate?" Savage asked. "You may not be wrong about his state of causing no harm to others, but it sounds like he's got more than enough firepower to get even."

"And he did, but his actions were somewhat not thought through enough." Nick said. "He hired a bunch of mercenaries by the sounds of it and machine gunned a couple of Z's animals, as well as an officer who was unfortunately present at the time of the shooting."

"What do all these events have to do with the death of Ellie Clawhauser?" Savage asked, still curious as to where Nick and Judy were continuing to go with this conversation.

"We're getting to that part." Judy assured. "So Z however found out it was Clawhauser who caused the incident after hearing it himself from Mr. Big. That's when he took us to this underground storage room where he called out Clawhauser on his wrong doings, and soon afterward _shot him in the head_." She said, needing to choke the words out of her mouth. "Of course for the monster Z's always been, he gave the order to kill Ellie Clawhauser since they found no other use for her after her brother had already been killed."

"That's a rather extreme action, killing off your prisoners even if they could still be a good use of motivation towards the rest of your group for guilt?" Savage said, thinking about it.

"I surely hope you're beginning to understand our reasons for hating this animal now." Judy said.

"Now, was there a fourth one in this group?" Savage asked.

"Yes, but this time it was more, accidental than purposely." Judy said, wondering about how to phrase it. "The wolf prisoner who was in for ratting out on Z's crew to Clawhauser managed to escape. Sherry Wolford who was Danny's mother, decided to follow along with him since all she wanted to do was see her sons again before Z's animals found her. But during the process of the escape, Sherry was shot and eventually died a few minutes later from her injuries."

"And what about the male wolf which reminds me, do you happen to know what his name was?" Savage asked, looking back at some of the notes he took to see if the name was in there somewhere.

"He was one of the missing mammal cases which came up a bit before the five other mammals in September went missing." Judy stated. "His name was Simon Clawchip, but everyone knew him in the business as Chip. I'm giving you his name to save you time, but it's mostly because you can easily look through the files of missing reports within that month and find him in no time."

"If you were to ask him about his own emotions on Z, he'd say the feelings between him and ourselves are mutual." Nick predicted.

"Interesting, I suppose I could try to look a little more into his file to see if anything interesting pops up." Savage said, writing the name down to remember. "Are you _aware_ of where this Clawchip animal is at the moment?"

Both Nick and Judy shook their heads. "Do you remember the polar bear who died at the Flock Street incident not too long ago?" Judy asked back, as Savage nodded his head. "That's who Chip was staying with. But considering recent events, either he's run away as far as he can from the city to start a whole new life somewhere else, or he reacted too slow and was shot by some of Z's guys after witnessing them barge into Biggy's house for an evidence sweep I assume. Either way, it seems to me like he's out of the picture."

"If he is still alive, we'll find him." Savage said. "I know a couple animals personally who specialize in fields of missing animals who are presumed to be still alive. They would investigate on the matter if we truly were desperate."

"As of now, his best use is as a witness." Judy said. "You could charge him for murder of the incidents if you want, but personally it doesn't matter to me."

"Now Miss Hopps, I'm looking at the list of animals still left in the prison cell and it seems to me there's only one more animal unaccounted for." Savage said. "Your father Stuart Hopps."

"To my best of knowledge, he's still alive." Judy answered. "He may just be the only animal inside the prison now. Z's keeping him alive because he thinks it will ruin the motivation he's putting on us and we'll have no reason to work for him anymore."

"And you surely think he'll keep it that way?"

"You know, there was more than one reason we came to ask you for help." Judy snapped back. "To be honest, I don't care if you decide to throw us in jail for what we've been a part of for so long. If you think we're just a bunch of heartless bastards, then you can throw in jail with the key dropped in the drain for all we care… But we're not stopping until he's gone."

"…You say you both want to deal with him yourselves, what's that supposed to mean exactly?" Savage asked. "Not only that, do you have any idea the death count we could be facing here if you both decide to take him heads-on?"

Judy and Nick thought about it for a moment. "… You know, frankly I don't care how he dies or who kills him, as long as it's clean and he does die."

"Interesting…" Savage said, as he continued to write notes. "I'll keep that in mind for a thought. Either way, what I'm more concerned about for the time being are the other two animals who were originally on The Mysterious Five to have been killed for either unspecified, or un-confirmed reasons."

"You mean Finnick and Danny?" Nick asked.

"Well isn't it obvious they were shot?" Judy asked.

"Clearly, but at what sort of cause?" Savage asked back.

"Well, for Finnick you can say he tried to pull a revenge stunt." Judy said. "He thought taking a female zebra hostage would pull Z out for who he really is, but it was interrupted after some anonymous phone call to the police about Finnick's location got him to change his mind and move to plan B. So he shot the hostage in the head, and the rest of the swat team opened fire on him."

"What exactly was he trying to prove when he shot that zebra however?" Savage asked. "Did she ever provoke him in any way to create such an incident?"

"You could say that." Nick said, while at the same time trying to make sure Savage wouldn't end up clicking the female zebra and her relationship to Z together. "But as most cases go, you could also say he wanted to do it simply as an instinct of rage."

Savage nodded while thinking about it. "Could be, could be…" He said. "Now onto the third one, Danny. Or better yet, can you please describe to me the events of that night on the Flock Street case?"

"….I didn't know what was going on until I heard the gunshot that killed the polar bear." Judy confessed. "I could've gotten my tranquilizer gun out, shoot them on sight and let the police deal with the rest, but I didn't. Evidently speaking I could tell the ZPD was going to find residue of the serum used for tranquilizer darts on the animal's bodies if I did so, and it would've led to a way bigger and messy situation for us. But in my opinion, the darts wouldn't have been a fast enough shot. At least another quarter of a second and Nick would've been killed, so I couldn't take the chance."

"So _you_ took the cellphones." Savage said. "You didn't want anybody to know those animals had your number inside of it. Exactly where are they currently? The GPS on their phones seemed to have been apparently disabled, a technique very few are aware of completting."

"Busted up, smashed and thrown in the incinerator by now." Judy said. "For now, it's best if we don't leave any loose ends."

"Hmm." Savage said, disappointed to hear about the evidence having been destroyed. "And what about you Mr. Wilde, what's your side of the story?"

Nick shrugged while crossing his arms. "There's not much to say except we were ambushed. The three animals who came and shot my friend were from another gang who call themselves Mother's Savage. Apparently one of Z's buyers had a bad relationship with that group, and so they blamed the weapon manufacturers for the deaths brought to them. That's when they soon made a badger who worked for Z cough up the phone number to reach him for deal making."

"And that deal created led to the ambush happening in the first place?" Savage asked.

"Well at first it was just that one leopard, but after he shot Danny in the head was when the other two came out." Nick explained. "I gave them the information they asked for, but as figured they were still going to kill be anyways. But that's when Judy showed up right in the nick of time, no pun intended, and stopped them from shooting me."

"Let me see if I've got this then from what I saw looking at the photos of the crime scene." Savage said. "Judy comes in while you have a gun placed on your head, and so Judy shoots the camel straight into the chest. She soon runs off to get the angle on the hippo, which I assume is from the roof, and meanwhile the Leopard instinctively shoots an otter bystander after most likely hearing a sudden voice come out of him. Judy then shoots the hippo in the head, but the leopard assumes it was the hippo who took the shot, so he goes running back over to when you two are now positioned. One of you soon shoots the leopard in the leg, and the leopard tries to retaliate after you took his gun away by nearly shooting you both with what I assume was a hidden ankle weapon."

"….Yea, that's about it." Judy agreed.

"You do realize that still counts as murder, right Miss Hopps?" Savage asked. "True it may have been in self-defence, but you used guns and no jury would ever be able to buy something like that with illegal weaponry put into place. It wouldn't even work for the great _Nick Wilde_ and _Judy Hopps_ who stopped the predator and prey population from turning on each other during the night howler incident."

Judy nodded in agreement. "You're right about that, but we would be willing to do so for the better cause. Besides, we know a thing or two about deal making if it comes down to it."

Savage cocked an eyebrow. "What kind of deal?"

"Well, let's just say me might know a few critical facts about where their storage room is located." Judy replied, as she could tell Savage got her drift.

"…This whole time you've been basically summing up what has happened only towards yourselves throughout this process." Savage pointed out. "I understand how much you want this Z animal dead, but what do you want from me? What exactly did you think coming to me would assist with, in regards to your own personal situation?"

"I'm sure you know some animals who can handle these situation, right?" Nick wondered.

"Oh I do, but some of the are not the kind of animals you would want taking control." Savage suggested. "Mr. Wilde, Miss Hopps, do any of you understand by now why a special agent was tasked to go to Zootopia for investigation purposes off of the weapon manufacturing case?"

Judy shook her head. "No, but I am sure you're going to tell us."

"Well let's see, if it were to put it in one word, military." Savage answered, as both Nick and Judy's eyes widened in surprise. "Do you two have any idea how much coverage these recent events in the city has taken across the world by now? I can tell you for a fact that it's not just mammals who are suggesting severe actions. World leaders everywhere from reptiles, to amphibians, to even birds are expressing outrage over what's been happening here from what they would call _'Terrorist attacks'._ "

"Hang on, let me get this straight…" Judy said, still trying to comprehend her own thoughts. "You're telling us that if you are unable to complete this task with not enough progress, the military is going to come in and handle this themselves? What sort of good is that supposed to do?"

"The kind of good which will certainly sooner or later confiscate Z and his entire crew, but not without a couple of casualties from both ends." Savage explained. "Those kits in the army don't deserve to go out like this, especially not in a place where they once believed to represent almost the perfect style of a utopian city. I for one would prefer to handle this in a possible, but more preferable diligent manner."

"What were you thinking?" Nick asked.

"Well for starters, I'm going to need at least one of the locations within the city where this Z animal could possibly be located." Savage said. "From there, I know a couple other agents working on separate cases in other 'classified' locations near here, and they would know how to handle circumstances of an ambush if required."

"An ambush?" Judy asked curiously. "If you were to ambush a location, wouldn't that mean you will also be capturing the boss as well?"

"That you are Miss Hopps." Savage agreed. "Naturally however, I'm assuming if one day you brought a knife to a gun fight, you would undoubtedly need a method of transportation for yourself. But before I can get any further into this, I'm going to need more information. For starters, you'll need to give me a location."

Nick and Judy looked at each other once more with concern after staying unsure of whether or not they should reveal even a single location to Savage. They could tell just from his voice he knew what he was saying, but they couldn't tell whether or not he would keep his word on any of this. For a rabbit like him, they never saw any doubt inside of him that he would. But for the course of time he has had working high-level cases everywhere, it wouldn't shock them if he turned out to be a master of manipulation.

Judy however, soon made her decision and spoke. "Old warehouse in the Rainforest district by 54th Waterway."

Savage didn't seem surprised, as he immediately began writing down the location Judy had just given him. Nick however, didn't seem to give Judy the happiest expression with his mouth open a tad in shock, mainly from Judy saying something out loud without talking it over between each other.

 _"_ _Why do I have the strangest feeling this is not going to work out in our favor?"_ Nick thought.

"Alright, I believe our business with one another has concluded." Savage said.

"C-concluded?" Judy wondered. "What do you mean by that Savage?"

"I'll be calling the both of you back to my office once I've discussed what you've informed me with some of my colleagues." Savage clarified. "You have my word on keeping this silent from the public as well as the ZPD, but when the time comes to making arrests, I will no longer have your back on this. If the police suspect you, I will have both of you arrested and locked away in jail with the rest of them." He said, as both Judy and Nick gulped hard at the same time. "But if not, consider it a token of my good fortune. After all, if what you're telling me is true then it seems clear to me you're willing to sacrifice anything to get Z. No trickster would ever act like that towards an agent such as myself, and even if they did I would know."

"So what now then, simply let Z continue on with bossing us around as if he assumes we're willing to do so?" Nick asked. "I for one am _done_ playing the role of slave to him, and I'm sure Judy would agree in a heartbeat since she told me herself."

"You got a better idea Wilde?" Savage asked, leaning in. "If not, then shut your yap and do as you're told. Frankly I could care less about how much you hate working for him. As long as it's keeping him occupied until further notice, then do whatever's necessary. Door's right behind you both." He said pointing his paw at the door, signaling them to leave.

Nick sighed, as he slowly got up and began walking towards the door with Judy. But before he could put his paw on the handle, there was still something nagging at him from the inside. Nick had paused himself for a few moments before turning around once more.

"How do we know we can have your word for this Savage?" Nick asked.

There was a moment of silence in the room between the three animals before Savage replied. "What other choice do you have?"

Nick still didn't like the sounds of it, but then he figured he would be ending up in jail either way, so he decided it wasn't worth fidgeting with for the time being. Soon after, he and Judy left the office and moved on to continue with their daily schedule.

As for Savage, soon after the two left, he took out his cell phone and went to his known contacts. After finding the right name and number, he dialed it and waited for someone on the other end to answer the call. He knew if there was someone nearby with enough coordination and strategizing, she was the perfect fit. Soon after, Savage had realized the animal picking up the phone.

 _"_ _Jack, this is rather unexpected, usually we would call each other during our lunch breaks."_ The animal on the line said.

"I know Skye." Savage said. "But listen, I hear from the news that your assignment had been completed?"

 _"_ _Yea, turns out some insane profit animals were the ones responsible for the missing mammal cases here at Kafya Desert."_ Skye informed. _"They seemed to have used surgical methods on the animal's bodies and took out the bones of each of their victims, and tried to make a few bucks by sending them out to a couple of eastern researchers. And get this, they hid the bones inside their tires. I tell you, some animals are simply way too slow with the technology we have created nowadays for investigations like this."_

 _"_ _Tch."_ Savage said, laughing to himself. "Rookie mistake, I assume once you found the bones that the conditions of them were rather…. Split you could say?"

Skye laughed. _"Alright enough with the creepy talk Jack, you're starting to sound like Buck Gliffalds all over again."_

Savage chuckled, recalling the murder case he and Skye had paired up to work on. "I suppose so darling."

 _"_ _So what is it you wanted to discuss?"_

"Well that depends, would you say you're finished well enough with the case in which it's soon out of your jurisdiction?"

 _"_ _Why do you ask?"_

"Because to be honest, I think I'm going to need to require your assistance now that things have begun to turn here for the better."

* * *

 **Next Week: Chapter 50, No Way Out**


	51. No Way Out

**Chapter 50: No Way Out**

March 18th, 2018, two weeks later

Savage, Judy and Nick all tried to keep a low profile on the case for the time being since their last conversation, but it was mainly hard on Jack to stall the ZPD for answers based off of the investigations.

Savage had heard from his colleague Skye that she had to stay a couple of more weeks over at the Kafya Desert because of considerations from the evidence she had gathered from the group of three people she arrested for the missing mammal cases. There seemed to have been a few more out there controlling the animal bones business they were in the process of distributing over the boarders of the city. But talented as Skye was with her tracking abilities, she was able to narrow down the possible locations of the remaining suspects, and captured them without a single injury or even scratch on both sides.

But as soon as her investigation was concluded, she took a detour over to Zootopia to accept Jack's request. By night time, Skye had finally arrived and walked into the ZPD to see Jack. It felt rather awkward for herself at first because they used to rarely ever work together on investigations when one ever came hurdling at them. But despite their personal relationships with each other, the director had soon begun to notice how well each of them were doing on an assignment when partnered up. Soon after, aside from their relationship with one another, he allowed the two to partner up on a more frequent basis.

Skye walked over to the front desk and requested to see Savage as soon as possible. Thankfully Savage was still inside the ZPD where he told Skye he would be, and not having to go through the trouble of making her way towards the hotel he was staying at. The hotel also happened to be the same place Savage promised her to stay in until their business in Zootopia was finished. Skye soon walked upstairs to Jack's office after hearing where it was located, and began knocking on the door.

"Jack are you in there?" Skye called. "It's me Skye, no need to be alarmed like you always are."

Soon after, the door opened and the first thing she saw were Jack's long ears before looking downward to see his face.

"I see your previous investigation was a success." Savage said, smiling. "There mustn't be a _thing_ in the world which you cannot find at this rate."

"Oh you tease." Skye said, as she walked over and placed her jacket on the hooks in front of her.

"You don't need to do that, I was just about to head back over to the hotel."

" _Ugh_ , I'd rather I try not to think about anywhere having to do with sleep for now." Skye groaned. "Honest to god, the next soft and cuddling thing I see, I'm laying my whole body face-flat down onto it until morning." She commented, laying her eyes weirdly on Savage for a moment.

"Don't even think about it." Savage ordered, catching her body movement transition quickly.

Skye laughed. "Oh you're such a tease Savage, no wonder you fell for a little ol' vixen like me."

Savage rolled his eyes at Skye's comments while straightening his tie, still trying to act serious. "How about we act a little professional for a moment please?"

"Alright, show me what you've got." Skye said, skimming through most of the papers on his desk. "What's with all the photos?"

"I've been scouting out a location in particular ever since our last phone call." Savage answered. "But before we can discuss this, I suggest it's better if I let you in on recent events for myself before we dig further into my findings."

Savage ended up sitting down with Skye for merely an hour, discussing the big principals of the case as well as its criminals a part of it. He even trusted her enough with the truth about Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps, and their involvement with the weapon manufacturers.

"Well that's rather…. Uncommon would you say?" Skye asked, after hearing the reports from Savage.

"It's never uncommon to hear about a dirty cop on the force Skye because let's face it, there's _always_ a dirty cop in the presence sooner or later." Savage commented. "Think about the eyes of those sort of cops, you find a hidden stash of money or bust a deal with money in which there's more than you and I make in a year combined. To some, it makes it an even better satisfaction to know that the money and the criminals are in safe paws compared to the rest of the bad ones on the street. To others however…. They strike for their own greedy chances of neediness or wants. Whether or not it's for a good cause, at the end of the day, you need to know it's still a crime."

"Mmhm, but this is nothing like any of the usual dirty cop scenarios, in this case it sounds rather forced." Skye said. "These officers you've been informing me of, they obviously don't seem like the type who choose to do this out of their own free will. These are the type of rookies who dig themselves too far into a cautious hole, and act as if their fighting for survival, or as if they're fighting for other's safety. They're not going to tell you who the boss is, because they're scared... Let me guess, they used one of those _'We don't want him to find out about any of this'_ sort of claims on you, didn't they?"

Savage giggled. "You find that to be an excuse?"

"No I find that to be its own act of self-righteousness." Skye replied. "They're only doing this because they're planning to do what they think is right now, not what they should be acting upon according to the law. They figure they'll need to finish the job themselves if they want to ensure that no more bloodshed needs to come raining down upon them anymore."

"Always thinking inside the minds of others, typical of you Skye." Savage said, smiling back.

"Alright then if I get the next thing you're thinking about, I call dibs on the bed while you sleep on the pull-up couch."

Savage nodded in agreement. "Deal."

"Regarding our current status on your fellow rooks' and the mastermind of this weapon organization, you want my knowledge at planning out an ambush, don't you?"

Savage sighed in defeat. "Looks like I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight."

"Hmm, that depends on how nice of a rabbit you are towards me for the rest of the night, maybe we could share a bed…."

"And here we go again with you assuming me to be a child due to may I remind you, our _slight_ size difference with one another." Savage claimed. "Either way Skye, I would like to get this assignment finished and over with soon before they assign me elsewhere, that's why I asked for your assistance. The director's already up my tail as of now with the status on this major case. He seems to be running out of patience with my slight delay, and I am running out of excuses to give him. If we don't find the break we need in the case soon, they're going to need to send the military in here."

"Military or not, that's not your concern however way you look at it." Skye said. "If this mastermind you've been chasing chooses not to come out of the shadows, then that's nothing which you have any responsibility for."

"While the fact remains there's no way out for those animals once the time approaches, innocent lives however may still be sacrificed." Savage said. "We know what these sort of criminals are capable of creating to make it happen, you and I both know about their attacks on the chief of police, both former and current mayors of Zootopia. Do you really think they're the type who would choose to go out smoothly and unharmed, after everything they've done to get to where they are now?"

Skye thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "I guess not."

* * *

March 20th, 2018, two days later

"So what's this vixen's name?" Judy asked, as she and Nick were sitting by one of the waiting chairs in the main lobby sipping cups of coffee she had gotten for both of them.

"What makes you think I know this stuff all the time?" Nick asked back.

"Because you're not me, and I know nothing about it so you're the only one to turn to." Judy replied.

"Most of the time, I only ever know anything the TV tells me." Nick said. "And all the TV's told me today is the presence of a new agent working with Savage, who just so happens to be a vixen."

"What have they said about her?"

"Only that Savage had requested her to come along with the case, coincidentally around the same time we had soon talked to him." Nick informed. "It's been two weeks since then however…. What could he be possibly doing for such long periods of time?"

"I'm not sure, but for an animal like Savage, it must mean something worthwhile." Judy said, taking another sip from her cup. "That reminds me, do you think he'll be asking us about our criminal activity towards the deals again? Because remember, ever since Biggy and Danny had been killed, Z's tripled security for us under circumstances of deals. It's a bold move if you ask me because eventually trust issues with another group of buyers will indefinitely come up at this rate."

"Hmm, I don't think it's the ambush of a deal Savage is after." Nick questioned. "He would want to receive a much bigger prize than that."

"Yea well good luck telling him to his face that's not going to happen." Judy pointed out. "Listen Nick, I understand our main priority is for Z to be put down, but we need to play it smart. We're looking at an animal who thought of it as no big of a deal last time we saw him, which just so happened to be the same time Chief Bogo and Mayor Lionheart were murdered on the same day because of him. Our moment will happen sooner or later, but Savage isn't wrong about the issues we could be facing if the military came in to deal with the matter."

"No doubt about it, but such expectations are already high standards for Savage." Nick said. "At this rate, we'd be lucky if it was the ZPD chasing us down, not the military and _especially_ Z."

 ** _"_** ** _Officer Hopps and Wilde, please report to room 213, Officer Hopps and Wilde."_** The speaker had announced all throughout the building.

"Thats us." Nick said, as he got up and put his empty cup in the trash bin with Judy following right behind him.

The two walked up the stairs and over to the room they were announced to get to. Nervous wasn't the right word for these sorts of meetings Judy ever had anymore. Now she was ready to talk real strategy and think more positively for once, for the sake of her own, and the city of Zootopia's future to come. They soon after got to the office where Savage had been working ever since he set his feet in the ZPD. Soon after taking another deep breath of relaxation, Nick tried to keep his confident attitude to his advantage and opened the door.

Inside, they saw Savage talking to a clear snow-furred vixen, who seemed to match the same description Nick had overheard other officer's gossip throughout the ZPD. Savage didn't look too surprised to see them, as he always never was no matter the circumstance. But as for the vixen, she already had a perky face on her seemingly filled with excitement.

 _"_ _Could Savage have already informed her about our position?"_ Nick thought.

"Ah, we were wondering when the best time to be to bring you both up here." Savage said, standing up and walking towards them to shake their paws in a mannerly tone.

"We get here at the same time, but not like we're ever late due to over-exhaustion of a hard day's work." Nick said. "We use those times for our days off."

"So do we." Savaged pointed out. "Currently on our personal day offs, we would be lucky if we didn't have to work overtime from the cases we work on everyday."

"Sounds like international agency work can become rather strict to your own self once you get used to it." Judy commented. "So who's she?" She asked, pointing to the vixen.

"Oh, how could I have forgotten?" Savage told himself. "Mr. Wilde, Miss Hopps, this is agent Skye Galvin, I've asked her to position herself within Zootopia presently to receive advice on plans and operations upcoming."

Nick turned his head towards Skye. "Nice to be acquainted with another agent to assist us through this." He greeted.

"Likewise." Skye nodded.

"Hold on, are you a member of _the_ Galvin family?" Judy asked Skye.

"To my knowledge, yes." Skye said smirking, while Jack rolled his eyes in embarrassment from her comments.

"I remember reading all about your family history while I was still in high school!" Judy exclaimed. "Your family's had at least six generations with some of the _greatest_ and skilled set of detectives the world has ever known about. They've discovered techniques, capabilities of a crime scene, and even numerous creative information in regards to narrowing down suspects. Some have even called them _the guardians_ suited enough to lead cities towards a better and more sustainable place."

" _Yea, that sure is Skye alright."_ Savage said sarcastically.

"Oh don't get all hissy fitty about it Jack, just because I'm the only female descendant of all the generations doesn't mean it's impossible for me to live up for what they were known for." Skye said.

"That's not what I was saying at all!" Savage shouted outrageously.

"Pick your words better next time then, because I know you were thinking it." Skye pursued in a certain enough tone, causing Savage to become frustrated. Eventually however, she giggled under her breath. _"I tend to tease him about it a lot more than you expect."_

"Listen, I'm glad our hi and Hello conversations are working out simply swell with chats going as far as stereotypes, but do you mind if you finish that baloney talk some other time so we can begin with our discussion?" Nick requested. "What we're dealing with here is not simply another book you can slide so easily back in the drawer, things begin to act like a tight spot sooner or later."

Savage exhaled deeply, refocusing himself on the reason he Brought Nick and Judy up here, and not on Skye's typical absurd and rather childish behaviour.

"So, what have you brought us in for?" Judy asked.

"Skye had just arrived in Zootopia a few days ago, and since then we've been devising a plan for an _ambush_ of our own." Savage said. "However, under certain circumstances we would tend to charge straight through the front door giving the suspect, or suspects less time to react. Only problem with these animals, they'll know were coming once they hear the sirens go off outside from who I presume will be watchers."

"And speaking of which, how about you show them the photos we collected of them the other day?" Skye suggested.

 _"_ _Photos?"_ Nick thought.

Savage opened his right drawer desk and pulled out a file. Once he opened it, Judy and Nick were surprised to see dozens of photos taken both in and outside of the warehouse. They even noticed Savage and Skye were able to retrieve a few photos of Z's watchers as well.

 _"_ _It takes some heavy training and skills to maneuver your way around a tiger and a wolf without getting caught in the action due to sound waves, or sense of smell."_ Judy thought, looking up at Savage. _"Someone sure is a little light on their feet for this job."_

"We took photos particularly of each position we may find vulnerable to put ourselves at the correct pace for the creation of this ambush, as well as the other positions of the watchers standing outside to find the right angles on them." Savage recommended. "We need to ensure they won't get in the way of our mission, otherwise everything will be compromised, and you two both will have a number on your heads afterwards from whoever this 'Boss' guy is."

"Not to poke holes or anything into your argument, but how do you suppose you're getting a warrant into this area?" Nick asked. "It's not like it's as easy as pie to charge straight in with guns blazing back and forth everywhere."

"The photos themselves can take part in acting as the evidence for it, especially with some of the animals we've captured standing in front of what appears to be a door to an underground basement." Savage said, pointing at photo after photo. "Not like we'll need it anyways. The court will consider almost anything now since the city's desperate, and they're not interested in seeing continuous body after body all of a sudden _pop_ up."

"The assault itself will be divided into 3 teams, but hopefully we'll only require 2." Sky explained. "Team 1 will act as the offense and charge straight through their door when they least expect, team 2 will be for support in the air in case if there are any other secret exits to which none of us are completely aware of for now, and team 3 will be used as backup if we somehow end up underestimating the fire arms they've got equipped and loaded onto them."

"We would've requested that you bring us photos from the inside, but we assumed you would say no since you're still seeming to be a little too illiterate to do so." Savage pointed out. "How can the both of you be so sure that Z won't figure out it was you guys who ratted him out? You're those only ones who most likely works for him to have a spot inside the ZPD especially, to tell someone about this in private."

"We assume by the time he does, the rest of his animals will be in jail depending on how we decide to take it." Judy said. "But I assume Nick here will still be waiting to get a good shot in on Z by that exit out the back of the warehouse, so I doubt any of it will matter since he'll be dead by then."

"Confidence can be your greatest ally Judy, but over-confidence may just as well turn into your biggest enemy too." Skye said, still unsure about Judy's overall view of how things may play out. "Let's not forget about how many animals he's killed to get to this point. He doesn't act like your average street thug, he's smart. He seems to have a movement pattern as if until the day you die, he'll always be five steps ahead of you from everywhere you look."

"But he's not." Nick spoke. "He'd think by now that this would be the last place he would expect to find us in, judging by what he would do if one of us made an action he didn't like."

"And what did he do?" Skye asked.

"He killed our friends and family, some of them he did in fact do so himself." Judy said, bluntly.

"Alright, alright, no need to start re-imagining the unlikeable details here." Savage insisted. "For now, I just need all of you to understand, once this plan happens, we have to play it right. Failure is not an option here, because if we fail more animals will die."

"And then he'll come after you two like a Buffalo and a red cape." Skye said, phrasing it as a simile. "Point is, just don't screw this up. We put a lot of thought into this, even if it acts simple to you. But lucky for us, we've only got one vantage point to worry about, and that's the trapdoor to the bunker." She said, forcefully putting her finger on the picture.

"Underground areas act as a convenience mainly to us considering how much more containable the dangers inside may be." Savage said. "We blow the next set of doors open from the inside, and throw some knockout gas in from there to have a better insurance that things will go more smoothly from there."

"And you think it will work?" Judy asked, continuing to examine the papers and layout of the plant on the desk.

"Well it's either that, or the military comes in with bombs set on the entire place rigged to blow, and say they refused to both come outside, and come outside unarmed." Savage said. "Then again, it could be better if we do it that way since we also have a higher chance of getting Z in the process."

Judy and Nick may have also despised all of Z's crew for willingly taking part in his cruel and rather brutal forms of crime, but even they knew it wasn't worth it. To them, most of the animals who worked for Z only got into the business because of money issues. Animals like the ones who needed a way and fast to pay up for rent, provide for their families, sustainability from their health problems, or even impress a guy or gal whom they believed couldn't live without if staying too distant. They may have done what they did without looking back, but they never wanted what has happened to them happen.

But it wasn't just about the morality of the situation, the crimes up until now had also been needing to be dealt with. They needed some of the members alive at least to cough up how much they could tell to the ZPD in order to cut a good deal in return with their jail sentence. Without any other members, aside from Judy and Nick living, there would be no one to tell the ZPD about any facts or knowledge they may need to know. One thought they had in particular was the bodies in the Kafya Desert. They thought it would be best if all the recent missing mammal cases had ended, and least with their families satisfied enough to know what had happened to all of them.

"We'd prefer not to consider that as an option, the crew themselves don't matter as much because just like with how we were from the beginning, it was _always_ under an order for every time we did something for that crazy zebra." Judy said. "All we want at the end of this is to see Z die, I don't care how it happens or who takes the shot once the day comes, but we want it to happen with him gone and finished."

"I'm sure you do." Savage said. "But all I'm saying is for you to be prepared for the moment and onward, because one misstep and sooner or later it's going to come back and bite you in the tail."

"We get it Savage, we've been over that already." Nick said. "But onto the ambush again, when do would you expect all of this to take place?"

"First of all, it's going to have to be kept a secret from the public until the further notice of the situation." Skye said. "Think about what happened between Bellwether, Lionheart and Bogo, all of those incidents occurring in mere days apart. If Z can act fast enough to diverse a major assassination success on extremely high and persuasive political figures, then how fast do you think he'll be with ridding the evidence in whatever way disposable, the moment he hears about this ambush?"

"We're completely aware about his group's previous work, so recalling from then, it should really only take a couple hours if he knows enough fast-time animals to do the job properly." Judy predicted.

"Our point exactly." Savage said. "Which is why we're thinking about a certain strategy. What we'll do is either myself or Skye will make an anonymous phone call, somewhere nobody could trace back to camera wise, towards the ZPD to inform them of a suspicious event like witnessing an animal walk nearby a warehouse with a gun sticking out at the back of their pants."

Nick nodded to himself, processing the idea of Savage leading the ZPD towards the warehouse while ensuring that Z never figures out it was him and Judy who ratted out on the location.

"Go on." Judy said, leaning back with eyes and ears open to Jack's suggestion.

"So once we hear the report from one of the officers, we decide not to let it make the front page of the newspaper, and decide that's better if we go check it out first before we decide to move up towards anything which may seem a little _too_ drastic." Savage explained. "Then in a couple of days, we'll hold an early meeting with most of the ZPD officers and move into further analytics of the ambush itself. By that time we'll have gotten the warrant we needed, and can pursue the plan during the exact same day."

"This sounds a lot more like an assumption than a stated fact." Nick said, seemingly still unconvinced.

Savage decided to ignore his comments once more and cut straight to the chase. "This is how we're doing it, you don't like it then we may as well arrest you now and leave the two of you in the same cells as your weapon pals once this is all finished."

"I wouldn't take threats such as those too seriously, especially since I could take down any animal who thinks they'll get the upper paw on me like that in a cage." Judy said.

"You want to bet?" Skye asked, beginning to reach for Savage's radio.

Nick thought it would be best for now to control Judy before things would begin to go the opposite way he was expecting. "Alright Judy we get it. Savage I changed my mind, we'll go along with whatever it is you just explained to us if you're positive this will work, because that's all I really need to hear if we're going to take Z down."

Savage nodded. "Then our business here is finished. All in good time, we'll let you in more on the exact location on the theoretical secret exit once we've further analyzed the systematic structure of the building."

Nick soon after, stood up after being excused from the office, but automatically noticed Judy's hesitation to get up from her chair. Nick soon tried to jester a bit to signal Judy to get up, but it wasn't working. Jack and Skye eventually began to notice it as well, with Nick now forcefully trying to pull Judy away from her chair, but by this point it was obvious that she didn't want to move.

 _"_ _Judy come on, I don't want to get into this right now."_ Nick whispered to Judy, hoping she would soon go with him.

Judy then gave a rather revolting glare towards Skye and Jack, before slowly getting up from her seat and walking out the door with Nick, as he closed the door shut.

Savage however noticed the shadow right outside his door, knowing that Judy wanted to listen in on any last thoughts before they left. Once the shadow disappeared, Jack laid back on his chair and turned his face towards Skye.

"How about we go for a lunch break, on the house?" He asked.

Skye thought about it for a moment. "I don't see why not." She said, as she soon got up from her chair and walked over to her belongings on the side table.

Moments later, Savage and Skye had exited the office with Judy and Nick already outside and back to their cruiser, as they were about to head over towards the stairs leading to the first floor, and towards the doors of the ZPD. However, as they were walking, Skye couldn't help but pause herself to think about what Jack had told Nick and Judy earlier. Jack immediately noticed her sudden halt and walked back towards her.

"Something the matter Skye?" Jack asked.

Skye was still left with a puzzled look on her face. "You said to me that you told this fox and rabbit cop duo, you would let them get off the hook if all things went according to plan… was that _really_ true?"

There was a long and awkward pause between the two mammals as if they were both in their own worlds, when savage soon sighed and walked closer towards Skye.

"Let me tell you a little something about these two crookeds' we're dealing with here." Savage said. "They think this is the same idealistic picture of a story where just because they think they act as the protagonists to this, they catch the bad guy at the very end and sugar and rainbows appear everywhere with the two of them jumping happily into the sunset. Well this isn't a story Skye, this is reality. And the poor truth about reality is that you're just not going to get what you want all the time."

"So in short, you're going to backstab em'."

"Backstabbing is a rather harsh term from what I would use, but it's not like I can let them get away with it." Savage commented. "They're murderers Skye, sure they may have not had much of a choice but they acted in their own way as a part of a gang rivalry, there's no other way you can put it."

"You can say they did it for a good cause, can't you?"

"What good would that do in the system of the law in today's world?" Savage asked. "You can have cops like them who play dirty even not having it done on their own terms, and thieves like that raccoon guy we met last year who robbed from high-end criminals, Sly…. something was his name who's got their own sort of code with doing the wrong things for the right reason sort of stuff. They may not always be what we've expected at the start, but the law is never supposed to be disobeyed in any way, it's why animals created it in the first place. Without it, the world would turn into complete chaos."

"So, you've already prepared everything then, so it seems?"

"I already downloaded all of the needed information onto the computers downstairs inside the bullpen, so I'm sure we should be alright." Savage assumed. "Mr. Wilde and Miss Hopps can be dealt with at a much more appropriate time afterwards, but I'm not sure if 'easy' is the correct word for any of it."

"Oh _please_ Jack _."_ Skye said undisturbed. "Even if you downloaded the information onto those computers, you really think it wouldn't be so hard to simply delete the info made by either of the two, or that suspicious character you keep going on about lurking inside the hallways of this place?"

"I may be no tech genius, but I seriously doubt any of those animals would have the skilled enough abilities to get through my password system." Jack informed, feeling confident in himself. "Besides, I hid a camera inside the Bullpen so if any of them showed up, they'd be caught red-pawed. Once that's happened, then there's no way out."

"Hmm, how about we talk more about lunch now, if you please."

Savage's ears dropped into disappointment, as the two of them had continued to walk again. "I seriously hope you recalled at least half of what I spoke about, just like yourself when the director always catches you to be the first one sleeping on the job."

"Oh, you worry too much." Skye said, waving and flicking her wrist in front of Savage's head playfully.

But just as they had left to downstairs, a large shadow figure had only taken a few steps towards the spot where Savage and Skye had just talked. He stood there for a few moments, almost as if he was examining the floor itself to see if they ever left anything behind. Soon after, he slowly walked back to his corner and pulled out a cellphone from his pocket. He calmly and nervously waited for the animal on the other end to pick up the phone after what he had just heard.

"Hey boss, it's me." The animal said. "I get none of us are supposed to call you at this time, but trust me when I say this, there's something you need to know about."

* * *

 **Next time: Chapter 51, Clean And Messy**

 **We're nearly there everyone, and big things are about to go down for real. Next few chapters are going to a little tough for me to write now that school is starting to get a little harder for me to maneuver my way around, with a certain amount of time before I soon go back to my normal work. But not to worry, I will be back soon!**


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